Dinner, then death: How crime lord Bilal Hamze’s shooting left a bloody mark on Sydney’s CBD

It was the evening the notorious gang war plaguing the south western suburbs spilt over into the heart of Sydney’s CBD.

It was the evening blood from the notorious gangland war plaguing the city’s south western suburbs spilt over into the very heart of Sydney’s CBD.

What began with the unmistakeable sound of gunfire ended seconds later with the notorious gang boss Bilal Hamze assassinated in cold blood on Bridge St.

NSW Police had warned Hamze, the cousin of Brothers for Life founder Bassam Hamzy, on multiple occasions about the threat to his life, but the 34-year-old chose to ignore them.

Despite moving into a high-rise inner-city apartment, away from his wife and children, he continued to live the gangster lifestyle and on the night of June 17, 2021 went for dinner with a mystery glamorous woman at Kid Kyoto.

His relaxed attitude to the threats towards him may have been in part due to the fact that he had met with a collection of high-ranking rivals in the weeks before his death to broker a peace deal.

The assassination of Bilal Hamze took the city’s gang war from the western suburbs, right into Sydney’s CBD

Hamze, 34, was shot and killed on June 17, 2021 while leaving Kid Kyoto restaurant on Bridge St about 10.25pm, after dinner with a mystery woman. Picture: Channel 9

He walked away thinking the feud was over, but as one senior police source said: “Winners never quit”.

After enjoying his meal at the Japanese restaurant, Hamze walked onto Bridge St where he was ambushed and shot multiple times by hit men inside a black Audi sedan.

That night, as office workers enjoyed a nightcap in bars on an alley off Bridge St, Hamze’s life end in a hail of bullets.

Australian Stock Exchange workers watched on as paramedics fought in vain to revive him.

CBD worker Sayad Hussein was sitting in his car at the time when he saw the black Audi approach and shots fired from a laneway.

The car then veered out on to the main road and performed a U-turn, before the gunmen unleashed another round of shots – to make sure the job was done.

Hamze spent his final moments writhing in pain on the footpath as onlookers desperately tried to save him until emergency services arrived.

“(The gunman) fired from the laneway then after that about ten seconds later ten bullets he fired,” Mr Hussein said.

“ (Hamze) was screaming on the floor … everyone was trying to help him.”

NSW Police had warned Hamze on multiple occasions about threats to his life in the midst of the gang war. Picture: Adam Yip

Police cleaning up the crime scene where gangster Bilal Hamze was executed by a gunman on Bridge st in the city of on the 18 June. Picture: Adam Yip

As he was rushed to St Vincent’s Hospital, where he would be pronounced dead, TV cameras arrived at the scene and captured footage of the woman who had been dining with Hamze in tears in the entrance to one of the other Bridge St stores.

That woman would eventually flee NSW, worried for her own life as accusations of betrayal or a set up ran rampant.

How the gunmen not only knew where Hamze was, but managed to mobilise so quickly, has long been one of the hottest topics of debate in the underworld.

But what is not up for dispute is that fact that Hamze’s death rocked Sydney to its core and took the bloody feud to another level.