Mick Hawi killing: Bodyguards were off duty when bikie was shot dead at Rockdale gym

DETECTIVES are investigating why slain bikie boss Mahmoud “Mick” Hawi was not accompanied by his usual bodyguards when he was shot dead in broad daylight on Thursday.

• Revenge attack fears for murdered bikie Mahmoud Mick Hawi funeral
• Mick Hawi: A slain bikie thug who lived by the sword
• Sydney’s hitmen can earn over $300k a job

DETECTIVES are investigating why slain bikie boss Mahmoud “Mick” Hawi was not accompanied by his usual bodyguards when he was shot dead in broad daylight on Thursday.

Regulars at Rockdale’s Fitness First gym, where Hawi worked out daily, yesterday said they had been surprised he had attended alone without his three or four minders.

“He usually comes with his security guard,” one gym goer told The Daily Telegraph.

Mick Hawi was shot dead on Thursday. Picture: Richard Dobson

The two gunman fleeing the scene of the shooting in Rockdale. Picture: 7 News

Another line of inquiry is why the former Comanchero chief appeared to have wound down the driver’s window of his black Mercedes 4WD outside the gym before he was killed in a hail of bullets by a balaclava-clad gunman at close range from the right hand side of the car.

Hawi, 37, who was released from jail in 2015 after serving time for the manslaughter of a Hells Angel associate during the 2009 Sydney Airport bikie brawl, was known to be conscious of his own security after at least one attempt on his life.

Ali Gulzary was one of the first gym goers out the front door of Fitness First after hearing the hail of bullets that killed Hawi just after 12pm on Thursday.

The scene of the shooting at Rockdale. Picture: Toby Zerna

He saw Hawi nursing a critical face wound.

“When I came out I saw the guy with bullet holes and everything,” Mr Gulzary said.

But he also knew something else was wrong, there was nobody flanking the towering underworld figure.

“It’s a little bit weird, now it’s all starting to make sense, like, he used to be with two or three guys but yesterday he was by himself,” Mr Gulzary said.

As police set up Strike Force Amirs yesterday to investigate the brazen daylight assassination, they appealed for any vision from dash cams or mobile phones taken in the vicinity of Chandler and Ashton streets, the Princes Highway, Rockdale Plaza Drive, and the plaza carpark.

Flowers have been laid outside the Rockdale gym where Mick Hawi was shot. Picture: Danny Aarons

The Daily Telegraph yesterday revealed that Hawi had a telephone “blow-up” about six weeks ago with self-proclaimed current Comanchero chief Mark Buddle, 32, who remains overseas where he fled following the fatal shooting of an Armaguard security guard.

His murder had all the hallmarks of a contract killing which sources said would have cost between $300,000 and $500,000.

If it was an ordered hit from within the Comanchero or another bikie gang, the cost would have been nothing with the killers following orders.

The gunman fled on foot and is believed to have left the area in a grey Mercedes-Benz station wagon, which was seen turning onto West Botany Street from Lindsay Street shortly after the shooting. The car was found burnt out soon after.

A single bouquet of flowers was placed at the door to the gym, below the bullet holes and a few feet from Hawi’s blood.

Police are preparing to increase security at Hawi’s funeral next week for fear of potential revenge attacks.

As tributes to Hawi were posted on the Facebook page of his widow, Carolina Gonzales, Arncliffe’s Al-Zahra mosque was preparing for the service.

“Police will look after the security (for the funeral). We (also) have at least seven or eight security (guards) at the mosque,” mosque spokesman Ibrahim Ghacham said.

The Rockdale gym will remain closed until Monday, Fitness First said on Friday.