THE EXECUTIONER’S BEGINNING

You do not get a name like “The Executioner” without starting somewhere.

On the cold morning of August 16, 2007, Hamad Assaad waited for a car to pull up outside his home, before getting in.

They drove to a nearby tow truck yard where they got into another vehicle, a gun-metal grey Mitsubishi Lancer, unaware a NSW Police surveillance team was watching on as part of another ongoing investigation.

But somehow, as the officers subtly watched on, Assaad and the other man slipped out of view, driving from the tow truck yard to Aubrey St in South Granville and pulling up outside the home of Mohamad Alahmad.

As the businessman and father-of-three walked out of his home and got into his BMW sedan parked in the driveway, Assaad attacked.

Assaad would be charged with murder and face a trial only to be found not guilty, but to this day there is no doubt in the minds of investigating police that he was the killer.

The fire had been lit within Assaad and there was no stopping him now.

CBD ATTACK ON MICHAEL IBRAHIM

Over the next eight years Assaad established himself as a well known name in Sydney’s underworld and made some high-profile connections.

He then tried to make his name even bigger, and on the evening of January 4, 2015, he drove to Macquarie St in the CBD and opened fire on Michael Ibrahim.

Ibrahim was shot in the shoulder and underwent surgery.

Assaad was never charged over the shooting, but it is widely believed by the underworld that he was responsible.

Eight months later Assaad again turned his attention to one of the biggest names in crime.

ANOTHER NEAR-MISS FOR BARBARO

Pasquale Barbaro was a stylish and similarly arrogant figure, with a penchant for taking on the big names to prove himself.

The two bulls came head-to-head in Leichhardt on November 9, 2015.

After an exchange of words Assaad pointed a pistol at Barbaro, with the latter running for his life as the bullets flew around him.

Barbaro would survive, only for another year, while Assaad escaped into the night - again without being charged, but widely spoken about as the shooter.

By this point Hamad Assaad was firmly on the radar of police and figured there was no point in hiding how dangerous he was, deciding to get some ink on his chest.

He got “executioner” tattooed just below his neck. And on the right-hand side of his chest emblazoned the words “the souls I have taken will never haunt me… only the ones I haven’t will”.

So desperate was Assaad to live up to his nickname as “The Executioner” that he began to claim credit for murders he did not even commit, such as the assassination of Walid “Wally” Ahmad at Bankstown Centro Shopping Centre on April 29, 2016.

Assaad claimed to be the killer to many of his associates in the underworld. It was a bold strategy that did not pay off.

THE EXECUTIONER’S EXECUTION

It was a Tuesday morning, October 25, 2016, when Hamad Assaad’s phone rang.

While driving along Stuart Avenue in Georges Hall, past Assaad’s home that morning, his brother Tarek had spotted a police surveillance car parked just down the road.

Assaad peered out the window of his home at the undercover police and then returned to getting a young relative ready for school.

These were The Executioner’s final moments.

The surveillance police watching on could barely believe their eyes as the shooting occurred.

In a move that may sound unusual but fits with protocol, they let the gunmen get away and rushed over to try and save Assaad’s life.

Ultimately there was nothing they could do for him and he was pronounced dead at the scene, with a major manhunt launched for his killers.

There were many suspects and while police never had the evidence to charge him, senior sources within the cops say they know who one of the killers was – rival crime boss, Mejid Hamzy.

Hamzy family patriarch, Mejid, is one of the links in this story between Hamad Assaad and Salim Hamze.

Four years after he is believed to have carried out the hit on Assaad, Mejid Hamzy was himself gunned down outside his home in Condell Park.

That murder sparked a war between his family and their rivals, the Alameddines.

As other members of the Hamzy clan also began to fall, it was teenage relative Salim Hamze who stepped into the fray.

THE RISE OF SALIM HAMZE

There are many more similarities to Hamad Assaad becoming “The Executioner” and Salim Hamze a teenage assassin than just their bloodlust.

For both men, some of their earliest shootings were against members of the Alahmad family.

When Mohamad Alahmad was killed by Hamad Assaad in 2007 his eldest son Asaad Alahmad was inside the home, only 14 years old.

Police who investigated the case say Mr Alahmad wanted his children to grow up like him, a businessman.

Instead, Mr Alahmad’s tragic death was the catalyst for his son Assad Alahmad turning to a life of crime.

By the time the current gang war started, Asaad Alahmad had become the alleged leader of the Alameddine’s drug running syndicate “Ready 4 War” (R4W).

Salim Hamze was only 18 when the modern conflict kicked off, but had been taken under the wing of his older and wealthier, distant relatives.

He quickly became a low-level drug runner before finding a desire to move onto bigger and more deadly things, such as the job of hitman.

FIRING HIS FIRST SHOTS

On the night of June 6, 2021, Salim Hamze pulled up outside the home of Asaad Alahmad and waited for him to drive back into his street.

As Alahmad arrived home in his Audi sedan, Hamze pounced, peppering the car with bullets one of which struck the Alameddine boss in the neck.

Alahmad was driven to hospital by a neighbour as Hamze fled off into the night. Hamze was never charged by police, but his name soon spread throughout the underworld as the person likely responsible.

Exactly two months later on August 6, 2021, Hamze was ready to again try and take a life.

This time, he would be successful.

A CALCULATED MURDER

As the Alameddine and Hamzy war raged, Salim Hamze moved to set up a rival low-level drug runner called Shady Kanj.

A text was sent to Kanj’s drug phone asking for a delivery of cocaine to Boundary Rd in Chester Hill.

Boundary Rd is a dead-end street and the perfect shooting gallery for a hitman.

While El-Jajieh managed to drive away with a bullet-ridden car to a neighbouring suburb and call for help, there was nothing that could be done for Kanj who had been shot multiple times and could not be saved.

Innocent bystander Ramadan Osman was knocked unconscious by the force of the bullet which flew through the top of his skull, but incredibly he survived.

Hamze had taken his first life, but he was far from satisfied.

SECOND ATTACK ON ALAHMAD

Just a few weeks after the death of Shady Kanj, the sound of gunfire was again ringing out in the city’s west. It was about 7.20pm on September 3, 2021 when a white Volkswagen Amarok ute drove down Blaxcell St in Granville. At the wheel of the car was Salim Hamze.

As a grey Toyota HiLux ute drove north along Blaxcell Street towards him, Hamze opened fire. At the wheel of the other car was Asaad Alahmad and with him were associates Adam Achrafi, and Khodar Hamad.

A second assassination attempt by Hamze on Alahmad would fail, with none of Alahmad, Achrafi or Hamad hit by any of the bullets. The teenage assassin was becoming a massive danger to not only the Alameddines, but the wider community, and as police received intelligence of his activities they had to act to try and stop him.

Without enough evidence to charge him with murder or over any of the shootings, police used what many senior cops view as the best tool in their arsenal against the underworld – Firearm Prohibition Orders (FPOs).

At 7.01am on September 10, 2021, just days after the second attempt on Alahmad and his mates, officers from the Criminal Groups and Raptor Squads turned up at Salim Hamze’s mother’s home in Auburn to serve him with an FPO.

This order made it illegal for him to possess a gun and significantly increased the penalty if he was caught doing so. As police knocked on the front door and loudly announced their presence, an officer hanging back noticed the 18-year-old running away.

In a white T-shirt and shorts Hamze jumped a fence, and tried to flee on foot, before police caught up and arrested him. In the driver’s side door of Salim’s car, police found an unregistered .38 revolver loaded and ready for use. Sitting on the ground in handcuffs, Salim admitted he was scared.

‘It’s for my own protection,’ he said, according to a senior police source.

Salim would face Parramatta Local Court the next day where, much to the fury of police, the magistrate overseeing his case released him on bail.

Police had hoped charging him with breaching the FPO by possessing the gun would see him taken off the streets and calm tensions for a while.

But when he was released they feared either he, or a rival, would soon be the next casualty of the gang war.

Again, they were right.

TEEN GANGSTER, INNOCENT DAD

Salim Hamze’s father Toufik was a hard-working man who realised his son had an issue.

So, in a bid to get him back on track and away from a life of crime, he got him a job working with him on a construction site.

On the sunny morning of October 20, 2021, Salim made the short drive from his mother’s home in Auburn to his father’s place on Osgood Street in neighbouring Guildford.

There, as they had on other mornings recently, they intended to get into Toufik’s red ute and go off to work.

But as Salim and Toufik walked to the red ute, parked across the front lawn, two gunmen ran up and opened fire killing both father and son.

“The father died for the sins of the son,” Homicide Squad Commander Danny Doherty would later say about Toufik’s death.

Salim, like any true gangster, died in a hail of bullets.

Just as The Executioner had eventually been executed, the teenage assassin had now been killed.

Words | Joshua Hanrahan

Art Direction & Design | Sean Callinan

Animations | Steven Grice

Production | Fay Gould

Development | Priyanka Jacob, Mridul Chauhan