Mick Hawi killing witness feared shooter may come for her next: court
A gym receptionist has told the murder trial of Sydney bikie Mick Hawi she ducked for cover as bullets ripped through her workplace, fearing the shooter may come after her next.
NSW
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A gym worker has broken down in tears while listening to her own terrified triple-zero phone calls made seconds after bikie boss Mahmoud “Mick” Hawi’s daylight execution in Sydney, where she says: “I didn’t want to get shot.”
Stephanie Nicolaou was working at the Rockdale Fitness First front desk in 2018 when she saw a masked man approach the ex-Comanchero chief’s Mercedes parked outside the gym.
“Next minute I heard ‘bang bang bang’ - until I saw bullet holes on the other side of the window,” she told the NSW Supreme Court via video link from Adelaide.
“I ducked behind the desk and held my hands over my head. I felt small fragments of glass hitting the back of my neck.
“I panicked and thought he was going to come into the gym because he may have seen me watching.”
After bullets ripped through the gym’s front window on February 15, 2018, the receptionist said she looked closer into the car and made a horrific discovery.
“I saw skin and blood,” she said.
“I crawled my way back to the reception desk to grab my phone and started calling triple-zero.”
Prosecutors allege Yusuf Nazlioglu, 38, was the shooter while 32-year-old panel beater Jamal Eljaidi was the alleged getaway driver, but both men have pleaded not guilty to murder.
Ms Nicolaou became emotional at their trial on Friday as her triple-zero calls were played to the jury.
“The person was shot in the car… there’s glass everywhere,” Ms Nicolaou said in the first call.
“Are they conscious and breathing?” the emergency operator asked.
“No. Someone’s doing CPR right now.”
Police sirens blared in the background during a second recording as a sobbing Ms Nicolaou described the culprit to a police officer.
“He was young, skinny,” she said.
“As soon as I saw shots coming through the car I ducked… I didn’t want to get shot.”
“I wanna hear you take a couple of deep breaths,” the officer told her.
“I need you to calm down... so we can get a hold of this person who pulled the trigger.”
The Crown alleges after the assassination Eljaidi drove Nazlioglu in a Silver Mercedes-Benz to a nearby street where the car was set on fire, before they jumped into a Silver Toyota Aurion.
A Rosebery auto smash repair owner told the court an unregistered, unlocked Aurion with no number plates was later dropped outside his shop before police notified him it was the getaway car.
Crown prosecutor Luigi Lungo has told the jury that DNA evidence will prove both men had been inside the Aurion, while gunshot residue was found on a balaclava stashed inside the car.
The trial continues.
THURSDAY, AUGUST 13
Two men were seen running from a car that had allegedly been torched moments after Sydney bikie Mahmoud ‘Mick’ Hawi was shot dead, a court heard.
“There’s a car on fire … there’s a huge cloud of smoke, and it seems to be exploding,” neighbour Gregory Lill said in a triple-0 phone call in February 2018.
“It’s on a fence line, so it’s going to take a house if it’s not careful.”
Prosecutors allege Yusuf Nazlioglu, 38, killed the ex-Comanchero chief with a volley of gunshots through the window of his Mercedes 4WD around noon on February 15 that year.
Jamal Eljaidi, 32, was the alleged getaway driver for the brazen execution, which was carried out as Hawi finished a gym workout at Rockdale Fitness First.
Both men have pleaded not guilty to murder.
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Their Supreme Court trial heard two slim men dressed in black were spotted “running as fast as they could” from a car engulfed in flames shortly after the shooting.
Mr Lill told the jury he’d heard an explosion and looked out of his bedroom window on the 10th floor of Rockdale Plaza to see the car well alight on Chandler Street.
The eyewitness told the court a neighbour was also walking around in an “agitated” state because his fence and garden had caught fire.
A post mortem found Hawi suffered eight bullet entry wounds and seven bullet exit wounds after being shot in the head, face and shoulder.
Agreed facts tendered in the trial reveal there were 12 areas of ballistic damage to Hawi’s car, while five bullets flew through the gym’s front glass window and one was lodged into a chair inside.
Hawi suffered an “unsurvivable” brain injury, and the unconscious 37-year-old did not move or speak until his life support was switched off at St George Hospital at 5pm that day, agreed facts show.
The trial continues.
