Blood on the streets: Endless cycle of violence staining Sydney
A frightening cycle of carnage is staining Sydney’s streets with blood. Five people shot in as many days leaving a man dead, a lawyer gunned down and a young couple and man struck by bullets while parked in their cars.
Police & Courts
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Five people have been shot in as many days leaving a man dead, a lawyer gunned down and a young couple and man struck by bullets while parked in their cars.
The overnight shooting on a Canterbury street has all the hallmarks of a targeted hit and appears to herald a chilling escalation of a gangland war that is regularly spilling blood on the city’s streets.
It also follows the shooting of two brothers in a Marrickville hair salon earlier this month and the cold-blooded assassination of gangland Mr Big Alen Moradian in Bondi in June.
NSW Police are on Thursday expected to announce a new Taskforce to investigate the latest incidents.
CANTERBURY, JULY 27
Emergency services were called to Broughton St in Canterbury about 2am after reports of gunshots. A man was treated at the scene by NSW Ambulance paramedics for gunshot wounds.Tragically, despite the best efforts of paramedics the man died at the scene.
Police sources said the victim had known links to drug supply and are investigating if he was meeting with two other men when he was shot.
GREENACRE, JULY 26
Criminal defence lawyer Mahmoud Abbas is shot in Greenacre, the same street where a major underworld figure Mohamed “Brownie” was killed last year. He was shot in the torso and right leg when shots were fired at him as he stood outside his home.
Neighbours reported hearing three shots fired, with Mr Abbas dropping a black leather work bag, several $50 notes and pieces of paper on the ground, before managing to scramble back inside and call Triple-0 himself.
Underworld sources said if it was an attempted gangland hit, it was unusual that the shooters did not set a getaway car on fire.
The shooting quickly sent shockwaves through Sydney’s legal profession, with the young solicitor known in the industry for representing high-profile clients including Salim Mehajer and Jamil Hopoate, as well as a number of alleged underworld figures.
GREENACRE, JULY 23
A gunman opens fire on Ahmad Al-Azzam as he sat parked in a silver Toyota on Mayvic St, hitting him multiple times, including in the head. Parked 50 metres down the road in another car, Kaashif Richards, 22, and Achiraya Jantharat, 19, were bystanders who were caught in the crossfire. Richards was shot in his neck and Jantharat in her back. All three were hospitalised.
Police say the shooting in an industrial area of Greenacre on Sunday morning has the hallmarks of the hits that have become common in Sydney’s gang war in recent years, except for one thing - none of the victims have known links to organised crime, or criminal records.
The Daily Telegraph revealed police investigators are working on the theory that Al-Azzam, 25, was the intended target of the shooting, due largely to the high volume of bullets which peppered his car.
MARRICKVILLE, JULY 7
A balaclava-clad gunman burst into Adel’s Salon on busy Marrickville Road. Brothers William, 33, and Eric Siale, 20, were both shot: the former in the buttock and back, the latter in the chest. Both survived.
Witnesses have told police one of the men shot dived in front of a gunman’s bullet to save his sibling who was shot at while getting his hair cut.
The scene was just 50m from the Marrickville police station, with witnesses telling detectives they heard about five shots before seeing the gunman speeding away in a silver car.
Footage showed the frantic moments witnesses tried to save the lives of the two men, with one of them lying shirtless on the floor before a police officer arrived to render first aid.
BONDI, JUNE 27
Gangland Mr Big Alen Moradian also nicknamed the ‘Tony Soprano’ of Australia’s cocaine scene, was shot multiple times in the head as he sat in his car. He died in an underground car park at Bondi Junction while on his way to the gym.
Moradian had tried to flee overseas to avoid the assassins but was blocked by parole authorities who told him it was “incorrect information” that there was a “bounty on his head”.
The underworld Mr Big, who was still on parole for cocaine smuggling, attempted to leave Australia last August after two NSW Police detectives allegedly told him underworld figures had put out a contract to have him killed.
But the Commonwealth Parole Office rejected his request to allow him to travel overseas by relaxing his parole conditions, which were imposed after he served a jail term for smuggling 40kg of cocaine.
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