Gunmen waited for ‘Angel of Death’ Tarek Ayoub to leave woman’s unit before fatal shooting

Sydney underworld identity Tarek Ayoub left a female’s apartment in the early hours of Monday, unaware that two masked gunmen were lying in wait.

Underworld identity Tarek Ayoub had no shortage of enemies.

Since the time he entered that life as a teenager, he moved between several crews and was involved in organising multiple murders, to the point he earned himself the nickname “The Angel of Death”.

“He was who you went to when they wanted a hit organised,” an underworld source said.

But as he left the apartment of a female acquaintance on Harold St in Parramatta about 3.30am on Monday, he was unaware someone had organised a hit on him — and that two masked gunmen were lying in wait to shoot him dead in a hail of bullets.

“I heard multiple gunshots and then I looked out the window again and saw a body … then I saw the police cars,” a woman, who lived in the apartment block, said.

It was little surprise to police when the call came through to say Ayoub was dead.

Underworld identity Tarek Ayoub was shot dead on Monday morning.

NSW Police Homicide Squad boss Danny Doherty said Ayoub was someone who had “lived by the sword, and died by the sword”.

“He (Ayoub) was a well-known criminal identity, with a long history of violence, to the point he was known in underworld circles as ‘The Angel of Death’,” Detective Superintendent Danny Doherty said.

“That was a nickname provided to him, (according to) the information that we have.

“(There were) many investigations where his name had popped up, so the list of suspects could be long and the reasons why he was killed just as long.

“There was a large amount of ballistic evidence there, so this was a message sent to Tarek Ayoub and it certainly was received. It was very loud and clear they meant to kill him and left a large number of cases behind to show they mean business.”

It is understood Ayoub’s earliest involvement in crime was with the Brothers For Life gang, run by the notorious Bassam Hamzy and his family.

But over the decade that followed he became a “crew hopper”, changing up his associations regularly, including with some of Sydney’s best known crime families.

“He was in BFL (Brothers For Life) and then moved on to the Ahmads (organised crime network) at one point,” an underworld source said.

Police investigate the scene of a fatal gangland shooting on Harold Street Parramatta on Monday. Picture: Max Mason-Hubers

A suspected getaway car was torched in Granville after the shooting.

“He moved from one group to another, usually to whoever was in power at the time.

“For a long time he was very, very close with the Comanchero (bikie gang) and associates of theirs, as well as the Haouchars (organised crime network).

“But in the past six or seven months he was out on his own.”

Tears were shed for Ayoub on Monday morning outside the unit block where he was shot dead, as family and friends gathered, with several men seen hugging and consoling each other.

“They killed him,” one was heard shouting.

Friends and family of Ayoub gathered at the crime scene on Monday. Picture: Max Mason-Hubers

The crime scene at Parramatta on Monday morning. Picture: Tamaryn McGregor

As those men grieved, State Crime Command detectives launched Strike Force Juneau and got to work piecing together how – and eventually, they hope, who – was involved.

Their first stop was a secondary crime scene five kilometres away on A’Beckett St in Granville where an Audi SQ, the suspected getaway car used by the gunmen to flee the Harold St scene, was found burnt out.

Police said initial investigations suggest the gunmen used a white SUV to flee A’Beckett St.

As is now commonplace with investigations of this kind, investigators will now work to trace the movements of those involved from that location, to wherever they went in the dark of the early hours.

Ayoub’s death is the first execution-style gangland assassination since February.