The Sydney gang war that led to hitman Hamad Assaad’s grisly death

THE bloodletting in Western Sydney this week was the inevitable grisly result of a confrontation between a brash contract killer and a complacent crime boss. This is how assassin Hamad Assaad met his doom.

Laura BanksCrime Reporter

2 min read

October 29, 2016 - 12:00AM

NSW

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THE bloodletting in Western Sydney this week was the inevitable grisly result of a confrontation between a brash contract killer and a complacent crime boss.

Hamad Assaad, 29, was gunned down by two black-clad shooters outside his Geroges Hall home on Tuesday in front of his mother and 12-year-old nephew.

He was farewelled at Lakemba mosque last week. Friday prayers always draw a large congregation and one could have been forgiven for thinking they had all turned out to honour his memory.

But few are mourning the loss of the cold-blooded assassin, who insiders say was “arrogant” and who believed he was “untouchable”.

The casket of Hamad Assaad is carried from Lakemba Mosque following his funeral. Picture: AAP Image

His is the third life lost since April as the Western Sydney crime world has erupted in a hail of bullets.

Contract killer Assaad is believed to be behind attempts on the lives of some of Sydney’s most notorious underworld figures and their relatives. Police also believe he was responsible for the murder of kingpin Walid “Wally” Ahmad.

Assaad ripped off drug gangs as he tried to show he was different to other criminals — more dangerous, more money-hungry, more bloodthirsty.

But whereas old school kingpin Ahmad knew he was going to die and accepted it, Assaad didn’t think anyone had the “balls” to knock him.

Hamad Assaad lies dead on his driveway at Georges Hall, on Tuesday, after a morning drive-by. Picture: AAP

And that was his undoing.

Ahmad, 41, was told by a police informant in the week leading up to his death that his days were numbered. He was a marked man. Many wanted him dead.

Many said he had blood on his hands for the April 9 shooting murder of Safwan Chabaji, 32, in Condell Park.

But even knowing there was a hit out on him didn’t stop him going about his usual routine. Or fearing the end was coming.

Hamad Assaad.

Walid Ahmad.

Instead, in a cocaine haze, the convicted killer tried to make peace with his past, and even apologised to some he had wronged.

Insiders have told The Saturday Telegraph it was people angry at Assaad’s “arrogance” over the killing that led to his assassination.

The entire bloody episode can be traced back to Chabaji’s death, which was the result of a long-running feud between the Ahmads and another Western Sydney crime family, the Elmirs.

Calls between the two families became so expletive-ridden the phones “burnt up”.

A woman overcome with grief approaches the pallbearers carrying the coffin of Hamad Assaad at Lakemba Mosque in Sydney’s west today.

The Elmirs had had enough. Fawaz Elmir, his son-in-law Chabaji and two other young members of the Elmir family piled in a car and screeched around to Wally Ahmad’s smash repair business to negotiate a solution.

Wally’s brother Mahmoud “Brownie” Ahmad was in the city with his wife when he received an erratic phone call from his brother.

And when he arrived at the industrial cul-de-sac, the two families were already warring.

The scene of the shooting death of Walid Ahmad on April 29. Hamad Assaad was believed to be involved in the death.

Bullets began to fly. Investigators have said up to five pistols were used in the shootout.

Chabaji was shot multiple times and was pronounced dead in the back seat of the car in which he was driven to Bankstown hospital.

Yesterday, as Assaad’s family buried their killer son, detectives towed the burnt out mess of the car used in his execution from a backstreet in Birrong.

Another sports car torched following another brazen daylight execution.