Former Mongols bikie Sam Abdulrahim shot at Fawkner funeral
Wounded Sam Abdulrahim has taunted his shooters from his hospital bed after surviving a failed hit.
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Former Mongols bikie Suleiman “Sam” Abdulrahim has been shot in a brazen daylight ambush just before noon on Saturday, while at a cousin’s funeral in Melbourne’s northern suburbs.
Abdulrahim, 32, was shot at least three times, including to the chest and stomach, while at the funeral in Fawkner Cemetery.
Dashcam footage taken just moments before Abuldrahim, whose nickname is “The Punisher”, was gunned down shows a grey Mazda pull out of the convoy leaving the cemetery and stop alongside the former Mongol’s black Mercedes G-Class 4WD, peppering it with bullets.
By Sunday the 32-year-old was in a stable condition and taunting his shooters from his hospital bed by sending out a photo of him flipping his middle finger. “Allah is bigger than all these flops, they’ll get there (sic) day,” he wrote in the photo caption.
The kickboxer’s black luxury SUV then veers out of the convoy as the injured ex-bikie drives to the nearby Fawkner Police Station where an ambulance was called.
Victoria Police set up multiple crime scenes, including outside Fawkner police station where he left his wagon and another scene at the corner of Box Forest and Sydney roads in Hadfield where a getaway car was crashed.
“He was just leaving when it happened,” a source told the Sunday Herald Sun.
“It was just bang, bang, bang.”
No one else was injured.
There was speculation the gunman, or gunmen, may have been at the funeral of Abdulrahim’s cousin, Naz, before attacking the crime figure.
Abdulrahim was taken to the Royal Melbourne Hospital and remains in a serious but stable condition.
It comes just weeks after Abdulrahim departed the Mongols outlaw bikie gang with other key outlaw figures Toby Mitchell and Mark Balsillie.
Abdulrahim was recruited by Mitchell to head-up the Northern chapter of the club before they were told to hand in their colours.
How shooting unfolded
The Herald Sun understands the ambush unfolded as cars were making their way out of the cemetery following the service.
The alleged gunman’s car was about two cars behind Abdulrahim’s in the convoy before it pulled up next to it and shots were fired.
The gunman fired multiple shots from the back seat of the grey 2019 Mazda SUV, which police believe had “cloned” number plates attached to it.
The shooters then crashed their car into a fire hydrant, before leaping from it and carjacking a black Ford Territory as it travelled along Sydney Rd with a woman and child inside.
The woman and the child were uninjured.
The stolen Ford Territory was found about 10pm on Saturday in Union St, Epping – two suburbs north of where the shooting occurred.
Abdulrahim was visited in Royal Melbourne Hospital by a large group of bikie mates on Saturday, many who have also left the Mongols OMCG in recent weeks, including Balsillie.
A minor police presence was stationed outside the hospital on Saturday.
A major police response was underway in Fawkner on Saturday afternoon as detectives worked the case.
Box Forrest Rd, at the northern entrance of Fawkner Memorial Park, was cordoned off.
A resident of Federation Residential Village, located next door to the cemetery, described the earlier scenes as “chaos” with “vehicles flying everywhere”.
Why was Abdulrahim targeted?
Police have confirmed they believe the shooting was a “targeted attack”.
But Saturday’s ambush shooting may not be linked to the Mongols feuding.
The Sunday Herald Sun has been told there are multiple factions within the Middle Eastern organised crime gangs in Melbourne’s north which are constantly taking shots at one another.
This week, a court heard there had been eight shootings in just five months in Melbourne’s northern suburbs, one involving a teenager allegedly firing an SKS semiautomatic assault rifle into a Pascoe Vale home.
Abdulrahim himself is no stranger to Victoria Police.
In January 2017, he was taken into custody after he crashed his Ferrari 360 Spider into several cars in a suburban street in Reservoir, killing great-grandmother Muriel Hulett.
He was jailed for a minimum two years for the 88-year-old’s death, and was released in March, 2019.
But he was thrown back behind bars in June that year after Corrections Victoria applied to have his parole revoked in the belief he posed too great a risk to the community after a series of shooting attempts on his life.
These included a drive-by shooting in Brunswick in late March, the attempted shooting of Abdulrahim’s sister in May and a shooting involving his cousin in Campbellfield in June of that year.
Abdulrahim challenged the decision, which is rarely used by the Adult Parole Board, but not before he was assaulted in prison by an inmate with a rock.
He tried to sue the state after he was assaulted in prison just weeks after his parole was “unlawfully” revoked.
Abdulrahim was also involved in a vicious brawl with another kickboxer, Omar Bchinnati, in Melbourne’s Magistrates’ Court in 2015, resulting in the third floor of the court being evacuated.
He and his father, who were pepper sprayed, attempted to sue Victoria Police for assault and battery.
Police are appealing for witnesses as they probe the events leading up to the shooting.
They are unaware if the parties are known to each other but said “significant resources” have been allocated to the investigation.
“(We have) no idea who they are,” Acting Superintendent Boris Buick said.
“Police are looking for any witnesses … to come forward and speak to police.”
Superintendent Buick said police believe the shooters were two males who were wearing balaclavas.
He said the offenders fled the scene and travelled in a westerly direction after they car jacked a Ford Territory, which was occupied by a woman and a child.
“Obviously it was a terrifying experience. an incident like this is terrifying for the public and for the people involved,” he said.
Who is Sam ‘The Punisher’ Abdulrahim?
Suleiman “Sam” Abdulrahim is a former Mongols bikie gang member and kickboxer turned professional boxer.
The 32-year-old, known as The Punisher, was born and grew up in Brunswick, and started boxing at age 14.
Abdulrahim was formerly linked to Brunswick boxing management company Punisher Promotions, and is also connected to the Power Gymnasium business in Holmes St, Brunswick.
His pro fight boxing record is six wins from six bouts.
His last triumph was on May 28, defeating Victor Organov in the cruiserweight bout at The Timber Yard in Port Melbourne.
His private life became very public three years ago when he was romantically linked to controversial Married At First Sight participant Jessika Power.
The heavily inked boxer has a tattoo on his left forearm which says “Honour Loyalty Respect Love”.
An Instagram post from last September carries a quote from author and poet Nicole Lyons: “I have licked the fire and danced in the ashes of every bridge I burned. I fear no hell from you”.
In another post earlier this month, Mr Abdulrahim shared a photo of himself in apparent prayer and professing his religious views.
Originally published as Former Mongols bikie Sam Abdulrahim shot at Fawkner funeral
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