Although he was in Brisbane on the day Joel Cauchi killed six people in a 2024 attack at Sydney's Bondi Junction, he knew his wife would be nearby.
As the news trickled in, Mr Ingram had the surreal experience of reliving his past from another perspective.
"I was caught up in this feeling of, 'I'm kind of glad I'm not there' and the feeling of, 'God, I wish I was there to help out'," he told AAP.
Mr Ingram is part of a quintet who will be awarded a group bravery citation from the governor-general after they used chairs and, famously, a milk crate to pin down a man trying to stab multiple people in Sydney's city centre.
The bank worker was raised to do everything he could to help those around him and those instincts kicked in as Mert Ney burst onto a city street covered in blood and wielding a large knife on August 13, 2019.
He had just killed 24-year-old Michaela Dunn and stabbed 41-year-old Linda Bo, and was being corralled by firefighters and civilians when he bolted up Clarence Street.
Mr Ingram, who had just finished a "lunch and learn" session nearby, picked up a chair and followed, catching up to Ney only a short distance from a crowded cafe.
"The realisation was, if I'm ever going to do something, I'd better do it now," he said.
Ney was shoved from behind and knocked to the ground, allowing Mr Ingram to hold him down with the chair while Adelaide man Jase Shore, who was in Sydney on a work trip, restrained the attacker with a crate.
"I don't really remember grabbing it," Mr Shore said of the improvised restraint.
"But that's the Australian spirit: grab what you can and work with what you've got."
The moment was caught by a nearby news crew, whose footage quickly went viral.
Ney was later sentenced to a maximum of 44 years in jail.
Praise and awards have since been heaped upon those involved and the two men will be given their group bravery citation alongside firefighters Gonzalo Herrera, Mitchell Bennetts and Bennett Gardiner.
While the recognition has been nice, the incident has also changed the way they interact with the world.
For Mr Herrera, it was one of the few incidents he has been involved in as part of a community, rather than emergency service.
"It just shows people that band together can make a positive difference, put all differences aside and work towards a common goal of helping people," he said.
An ex-military man, Mr Shore was used to acting with no regard for his own life, but the death of Ms Dunn continues to trouble him as a father to a young daughter.
"I'd always say it was fight or flight and in that moment, a lot of people ran," he said.
"If you're not trained to approach a situation like that, there's nothing wrong with flight - that's the protection of life."
The group still keeps in contact, often sending birthday messages, and they have met up on several anniversaries to remember Ms Dunn.
A NSW police officer was separately recognised with a posthumous bravery decoration from the governor-general.
Senior Constable Kelly Foster died after a canyoning incident while she was off-duty in the Blue Mountains in January 2021.
She went to help a fellow canyoner who had been swept into a whirlpool, but both Sen Const Foster and the 24-year-old woman drowned.
The 39-year-old was remembered by her family as tough but selfless at her funeral, where she received the Commissioner's Valour Award for bravery.
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