Ibrahim bodyguard Semi ‘Tongan Sam’ Ngata shot in the back
THE shooting of Semi ‘Tongan Sam’ Ngata, the long-standing body guard for John Ibrahim’s family, has overshadowed a backyard wedding between a member of the clan and Salim Mehajer’s sister.
NSW
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THE shooting of Semi ‘Tongan Sam’ Ngata, the long-standing body guard for John Ibrahim’s family, has overshadowed a backyard wedding between a member of the clan and Salim Mehajer’s sister.
Semi Ngata, more commonly known as Tongan Sam, was shot in the back in Merrylands about 10:45pm on Friday.
The feared enforcer, who has been by the Ibrahim family’s side for more than a decade, was shot at the Price St home of Ibrahim’s mother, Wahiba Ibrahim.
Police say Mr Ngata was in the backyard of the home when a shooter slid through a side gate and opened fire.
“Essentially someone has come and shot in the backyard of the house, that is what we have been told,” Holroyd Local Area Command Chief
Inspector Bradfield Peters said.
The 59-year-old was taken to Westmead Hospital where he remains in a serious but stable condition.
The shooting unfolded a night before the wedding of Hassan “Sam” Sayour and one of embattled property developer Salim Mehajer’s sisters, Aisha.
Mr Sayour, is the nephew of nightclub baron John Ibrahim.
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The words “Sam and Aisha 18.11.2017” are painted on the footpath outside Wahiba Ibrahim’s Merrylands Home.
Police are investigating whether the union between two of Sydney’s high-profile families had anything to do with Mr Ngata’s shooting.
“We have only just found out about that, that there maybe a wedding today,” Chief Inspector said.
“But whether there is any link to what occurred last night I can’t say.”
Despite the incapacitation of the family’s confidant, it appears the show will go on.
Two men at the Ibrahim home in Merrylands were setting up rows of plastic chairs at the back of the house on Saturday morning.
Flowers and a cake have also been delivered to the home.
Mr Ngata lives a few doors down from the Ibrahim matriarch’s residence.
His wife was on her way to the hospital to visit Mr Ngata on Saturday morning.
“He is doing ok, we have been there all night, we just came home to freshen up,” she said.
Another relative of Mr Ngata visited the Ibrahim house about 9am when detectives arrived and spoke to someone inside.
A getaway car potentially used in the shooting was found burnt out in Rees St in Mays Hill not long after the shooting.
The Ibrahim brothers grew up in quiet suburban Price Street.
Later in life, John Ibrahim helped his mother turn his childhood fibro home into a two-storey, five bedroom mansion.
John Ibrahim’s brothers, Fadi and Michael, and his son, Daniel, are currently before the NSW courts accused of being involved in an international tobacco and drug- smuggling conspiracy.
Ibrahim’s model girlfriend Sarah Budge is facing firearms and ammunition charges following a series of organised raids and arrests across Sydney and the United Arab Emirates in August.