Ponchos and a price on his head: Death among diners on inner city street

A week after Niddal Acherkouk was gunned down and died in a brazen public hit on a crowded street, questions abound — not least over his black-clad assassins and how they knew where to find him.

Niddal Acherkouk fled Australia after he was almost kidnapped last year.

The 31-year-old associate of the Comanchero bikie gang had only returned home in recent months, presumably hoping the temperature of the underworld had cooled and the target on his back disappeared.

And so last Friday night, he joined friends at Erciyes, an institution of a Turkish restaurant on Cleveland St in Surry Hills, for a meal before walking back to the BP petrol station where he had chosen to ignore the “customer only” parking signs.

What happened next has been seen by millions across Australia, thanks to CCTV from the BP leaking within 24 hours of Acherkouk being shot dead by two gunmen dressed head to toe in black.

Incredibly, as bullets rained down on him, Acherkouk jumped over the centre console and was able to open the passenger door, before trying to run for his life.

Niddal Acherchouk’s assassins fire into his car at the BP service station on Cleveland Street in Surry Hills. Picture: Supplied.

A wounded Acherkouk scrambles form the car trying to flee his assassins. Picture: Supplied.

But as he did so,his escape was blocked by a metal fence, and so he had to turn around.

Acherkouk turned back towards Cleveland Street and into the line of fire, being struck by a barrage of shots.

He then ran down the footpath past Erciyes with pedestrians, including families with young children, diving into shops in a bid to protect themselves.

Acherkouk made it down the road and to Chemist Warehouse, before collapsing at the busy intersection of Crown St and Cleveland St.

Across the road, sitting in the window having a schooner of beer, a man pulled out his phone and filmed shocked passers-by trying to help Acherkouk as his white T-shirt became increasingly stained with blood.

The vision shocked the public but one specific element captured the attention of police — the decision of the two killers to wear black ponchos.

Acherkouk collapses on the intersection of Cleveland and Crown Streets, bleeding heavily form gunshot wounds. Picture: Supplied

Onlookers try to help the fatally-wounded Acherkouk. Picture: Supplied

“In all the shootings we’ve had, I’ve never seen that,” one police source said this week.

Exactly what led up to Acherkouk’s assassination is currently the source of much scrutiny by State Crime Command Homicide Squad detectives.

Some underworld sources have suggested in the aftermath of his death that Acherkouk told friends in recent weeks that he had been made aware of a bounty on his head.

However police sources said they had no record of any conversation between them and the shooting victim in that regard, suggesting that it may have been a fellow underworld figure who warned Acherkouk of the threat to his life.

A key element of the police investigation will be working out how the gunmen knew Acherkouk would be where he was at that time.

There has been some suggestion that his weekly routine included a visit to Erciyes, but that has also been debated.

What is not believed to be in doubt is the motive for Acherkouk’s death, with police sources suggesting a drug theft is the likely reason he was targeted.

“You would have to think there has been some kind of rip,” the source said.

Acherkouk bled out on the street as emergency services scrambled. Pictures: Matrix

Acherkouk’s death has led to fears of a reignition to Sydney’s gang war which has seen 23 people assassinated since late 2020, when Fares Abounader and Mejid Hamzy were both shot dead.

On two occasions in the four years since – in the middle of 2022 and 2023 – a lot of blood has been spilled in short periods of time.

In 2022, Mahmoud “Browny” Ahmad, Omar Zahed, Rami Iskander and Yusuf Nazlioglu were all killed within weeks of each other.

In 2023, Marvin Oraiha, Alen Moradian, Ferenc Stemler and Dejan “Danny the Serb” Radulovic were killed in the space of two months.

On both occasions, pressure was piled on police and politicians to stop the bloodshed, resulting in the creation of Taskforce Erebus in 2022 and Taskforce Magnus in 2023 to stop the shootings and solve the murders.

But in 2024, the view of many has been that the gangland war has slowed down.

That is true to an extent, with Acherkouk being only the third man to be assassinated in an organised crime style murder, following Bol Deng in February and Tarek Ayoub in August.

But if not for pure luck, 2024 could have been on par with other bloody years in the gang war.

A Porsche believed to have been used by the block ponchoi-clad assassins as a getaway car was torched in nearby Kensington. Picture: Supplied

Since September, three men have been shot at in attempted assassinations but survived.

Vailena Koloamatangi was targeted by masked gunmen in Winston Hills on October 2 and struck by four bullets, but survived.

A few days later Fetaiaki Toupoulahi answered a knock at the door of his Homebush unit to find masked gunmen on the other side.

He too was shot multiple times, including in both arms, but managed to shut the front door and escape with his life.

Then on October 23, came the third attempt in 18 months on the life of Khoder Hamdan in Auburn.

If those three men – who all have underworld associations and are well known to be police – had been killed, the feeling would have been completely different on the streets of Sydney.

And that is before you take into account the failed attempt on businessman John Ibrahim at Dover Heights in July – which if not for the fortunate incompetence of the two alleged gunmen would have been the most significant shooting murder the city has ever seen.