Comanchero bikie Tarek Zahed clings to life after Body Fit Gym shooting
Comanchero sergeant-at-arms Tarek Zahed is still fighting for life in Westmead Hospital after he was shot 10 times and his brother Omar killed in a gangland hit at an Auburn gym on Tuesday.
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Comanchero bikie Tarek Zahed has improved in hospital and continues to cling to life despite being shot 10 times outside a Sydney gym overnight.
Zahed was rushed to Westmead Hospital in a critical condition and his brother Omar was killed, after the second gangland incident to rock Sydney’s streets in as many weeks.
But the 41 year-old’s condition is now stable and he is in an induced coma.
The brothers were peppered with bullets as they stood in the foyer of the Body Fit Gym on Parramatta Rd at Auburn just after 8pm on Tuesday.
It was an eerie scene outside the popular Western Sydney gym on Thursday morning.
The Auburn facility remains closed and is under security guard.
Gym staff were seen hugging each other as electrical and glass replacement services arrived in preparation for a cleanup.
Plastic covering had been placed over the gym doors but bullet holes are still visible.
Police remain on high alert of a revenge attack.
On Wednesday, gym-goer Azis Alruken told how he cowered behind a treadmill when he heard blasts of more than 20 bullets.
“I heard about 20 bullets it happened quickly in 20 seconds. I was in the gym when the guns were fired, everyone was screaming trying to run out of gym, there we’re around 30 of us,” he said.
“We were scared. I just tried to hide myself behind the treadmill, I was full of fear.”
Tarek, 42, is understood to have been shot in the head, stomach, legs and arms, and was rushed to Westmead Hospital in a critical condition.
Omar went into cardiac arrest after being shot multiple times and died at the scene.
Incredible footage shot from inside the gym shows paramedics working on the pair as they lay bloodied on the foyer floor.
Two burnt out cars were found in Berala and Greenacre not long after the incident, with both believed to be linked to the shooting.
Eyewitnesses near the burned out getaway cars in Greenacre and Berala described hearing deafening explosions and seeing young men run from the cars they torched.
“I saw one man jump out of his car, set fire to it and run into another car parked nearby, and they screeched off, followed by another car”, onlooker Ming Zhong, 68, from Berala said.
“Suddenly there was bright light in my unit, it was from the fire of the burning car outside, I didn’t know what was happening but a young man in his 20s in a black top who (sic) burned the car was shouting ‘go,go,go’,” he said.
Mother of two Indri Jasin, 52, from Greenacre, was watching MasterChef when she heard a loud bang around 8.30 pm. “The building shook, I looked out of the window and a car had exploded, it was like a bonfire, I immediately called triple-0, there were so many loud bangs after the explosion, it was terrifying.
“It was a grey Audi that had exploded into flames, it never happened before in this area which is normally quiet. I thought there was someone inside dying as I heard a loud scream when I came out but the emergency services people said the car was empty.”
Tuesday night’s shooting comes only a week after The Daily Telegraph reported that a bounty had been placed on the head of Tarek Zahed, making him the latest underworld figure to be a marked man.
Underworld sources said Tarek had been urged by those close to him to play it safe, but he failed to listen.
“They warned him the other week: ‘Stop going to the gym, change your routine’, but he didn’t listen. They are fuming,” a bikie source said.
NSW Ambulance Inspector Kevin McSweeney said paramedics arrived at the “horrific and confronting scene” to find both men riddled with bullets “all over their bodies”.
“On our arrival we found two male patients … with multiple gunshot wounds to multiple regions of their bodies,” Insp McSweeney said.
“They were both found to be in extremely critical condition(s). At the scene we stabilised the patients as best we could.
“The second patient had been hit with up to 10 bullets and incredibly, was still conscious and breathing when we transported him to hospital.”
The Zahed brothers were known to be incredibly close, with photos only recently shared to TikTok showing them regularly posing for photos together at the same gym.
Last August they were caught breaching COVID-19 lockdown rules by walking the Bay Run together, along with another brother Abdul, at 2am.
Tarek had been aware of threats against his life for close to a year and last September used that danger as a reason to escape NSW’s lockdown and fly to Turkey.
Despite the efforts of police to make him aware of the dangers he faced, when he returned to Australia he continued to live a lavish lifestyle.
He was infamously caught interrupting play at the Australian Open men’s final in January at a time when he was living in Melbourne in an effort to avoid the restrictions imposed on him by NSW Police.
When he returned to NSW in March to attend the funeral of Lone Wolf bikie boss Erkan “Eric the Wolf” Keskin – who died in Turkey from natural causes – he was again charged by police.
The fatal shooting comes less than a fortnight after fellow underworld figure Mahmoud “Brownie” Ahmad was gunned down outside the Greenacre home of an associate on April 27.
Ahmad too had been warned by police about the dangers to his life, but he refused to listen.
In the wake of the shooting, NSW Labor police spokesman Walt Secord said in a statement he was worried about a member of the public being hurt.
“Crime gangs are carrying out attacks with impunity and with no regard for the safety of others,” he said.
“Frankly, I’m less concerned about feuding gangsters killing each other and far more concerned about innocent bystanders getting killed in the crossfire.
“The community has been patient. The wave of shootings has gone on too long. This is about community safety.”
Tarek had long been the Sergeant at Arms of the Comanchero in Australia, but over recent times had become the hot tip to be the next man elevated to the role of national president.
Playing in his favour was his role as the trusted right hand man of exiled bikie boss and drug kingpin Mark Buddle.
While police intelligence and underworld rumour suggested there was a target on his back, it was not clear which of his enemies had planned to target him.
“Everyone’s talking about the whispers around Tarek, but no one knows who is behind it,” an underworld source recently said.
“Whoever is targeting him is pretty brave, because everyone knows how close he is to (Mark) Buddle.”
If he had not made enough rivals in his life as a senior Comanchero, the bikie gang’s decision in recent years to partner up with the Alameddine crime clan to allegedly dominate the Sydney drug market saw many new enemies add their names to the list.
Police believe the Alameddine clan’s war with the rival Hamzy organised crime network has been responsible for a total of 11 suspected underworld killings.
Elsewhere in Sydney on Tuesday night, another drive-by shooting was carried out at Londonderry just before 9pm, with a man – believed to be in his 30s – shot.
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