Dr. Ramin Ahmadi, a Yale doctor and human rights activist, says he has been advocating for freedom in Iran for decades.

He says that on Saturday, he and his family learned of the U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran and the death of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Ahmadi says his family was “literally dancing in the streets” when they heard the news — until about 10 minutes later, when people on motorcycles with machine guns fired into the air. His family ran back inside. No one was hurt.

Ahmadi says his family no longer feels safe in Iran. “They might get shot going to the grocery store,” he said.

He claims 30,000 to 50,000 people have been killed in Iran over the last three weeks under the supreme leader.

“We’d rather die than live with these criminals — with people that we know killed our loved ones brutally. That’s a worse nightmare, to have to live with them every day,” Ahmadi said.

Ahmadi founded the Iran Human Rights Documentation Center and has lived in the U.S. since 1982. He said protests for democracy and human rights in Iran intensified in December.