SYDNEY (AP) — A suspected gunman in Sydney’s Bondi Beach massacre was charged with 59 offenses including 15 charges of murder on Wednesday, as hundreds of mourners gathered in Sydney to begin funerals for the victims.
Two shooters slaughtered 15 people on Sunday in an antisemitic mass shooting targeting Jews celebrating Hanukkah at Bondi Beach, and more than 20 other people are still being treated in hospitals. All of the victims identified so far were Jewish.
A police official said the 24-year-old suspected shooter was charged in Sydney hospital on Wednesday, where he has been since police shot him and his gunman father at Bondi. His 50-year-old father died at the scene, a police official said.
The charges include one count of murder for each victim who died and one count of committing a terrorist act.
Funerals began as a country reeling from its deadliest hate-fueled massacre of modern times turned to searching questions, growing in volume since the attack, about how it was able to happen. As investigations unfold, Australia faces a social and political reckoning about antisemitism, gun control and whether police protections for Jews at events such as Sunday’s were sufficient for the threats they faced.
