Girl, 9, shot by assassins when gangster dad’s work came home
The ugliest moment of Sydney gang war has been revealed: sickening images of a girl, aged just nine, shot by assassins looking for her gangster dad.
Police & Courts
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This is the shocking moment a nine-year-old girl was shot by an assassin who came to her family’s home to murder her father, marking the most disgraceful chapter in Sydney’s gangland war.
The girl had no choice in her father’s chosen career as a drug manufacturer for a ruthless crime syndicate.
But she paid the price when two hit-men were sent to the family’s Southern Sydney home to kill her father — the cost of a business dispute in his line of work.
The father wasn’t home when the assassins arrived in a BMW just after 5.30pm on July 8, 2022, according to documents tendered to the Sydney District Court in the case of one of the hired killers, Hassan Osseili.
Instead, the documents said the gunman stood at the end of the driveway and fired five shots at the three children who were helping their mother unload grocery shopping bags into the home.
One of the bullets hit the girl in her right hip and exited through the other. She dropped to the ground unaware of what caused the pain.
Her shocked siblings looked back at the gunman as he continued firing bullets through the front door.
Inside the home, the girl’s mother was packing groceries into a cupboard.
A number of the bullets that missed her children flew over her head and left a plume of smoke when they hit a wall.
The documents showed the mother placing her hands on her face in disbelief as she saw her daughter lying by the front door.
She immediately raced into the line of fire and dragged the injured girl into the kitchen.
The mother and siblings tendered to the girl while calling emergency services and her husband.
According to the documents, the woman noticed her daughter’s “eyes were open” but also that the young girl “was unresponsive” and had “blood all over the bottom half” of her body.
“She called (her husband) and told him that (their daughter) had been shot and she was dead,” the document said.
SCARRED FOR LIFE
The girl survived, but will suffer lifelong injuries.
She still suffers pain and finds it hard to sleep.
The shooting robbed her of the activities she loves, like playing sports or riding a bike, martial arts and swimming.
After the shooting, she was rushed to the Sydney Children’s Hospital and underwent emergency surgery.
It was partially successful but left her unable to move her leg, foot and toes, the document said.
After two more surgeries, she was left with a permanent limp.
The girl also missed a year of school and now faces a life impacted by her father’s career choice.
She suffered long term nerve damage and wears an ileostomy bag.
“She required an ankle foot brace and used a range of mobility aids including a walker, pick up frame, crutches, wheelchair (and a) showering chair,” the documents said.
GUILTY
The details of the shocking episode can be revealed after Osseili pleaded guilty to his role in the shooting.
Osseili, 24, last week pleaded guilty to shooting with intent to murder and conspiracy to murder.
He is listed to begin sentencing on February 26.
His co-offender Mahmoud Rizk, 36, was sentenced to a maximum 12 years jail in December 2023 after pleading guilty to conspiracy to murder and causing grievous bodily harm.
The Saturday/Sunday Telegraph had been legally prevented from revealing the details after the two men’s cases were separated.
Rizk initially pleaded guilty and Osseili planned to contest his matter at trial.
A non-publication order was placed over both cases until the end of Osseili’s trial.
That now falls away because Osseili pleaded guilty and won’t stand trial in front of a jury.
AMATEUR HOUR
Despite the planning, the murder attempt was the work of bumbling amateurs.
The red Mini Cooper getaway car, which had been parked in a nearby street for four days, failed to start.
Rizk and Osseili set fire to the BMW and fled on foot into the bush.
They jumped in the water as police hovered above the scene in a helicopter.
Police later found the Mini with a petrol container, bottles of bleach and Windex inside.
Rizk’s DNA was found on a lighter inside the car.
Two days after the shooting, police found the balaclava, mobile phone and pistol that were used in the shooting at Oatley Pleasure Grounds.
The phone contained a lengthy text exchange called “Clockwork” on the encrypted messaging app Threema.
The chat included detailed instructions on carrying out the shooting from a person known as “SILENT”, the documents said.
Rizk used the handle “Redrum 187” while Osseili was known as “Chuckie”, the document said.
After his arrest, police noticed the “Redrum” tattoo on Rizk’s index finger.
In the lead up to the shooting, SILENT texted instructions.
“Good luck brothers. Remember run up when u confident u got him so don’t miss him. His a fat f--k he can’t move quick,” SILENT wrote.
In another, SILENT wrote: “Just wait for him to be getting out of the car and run up on him. Just make sure u have the perfect shot. And confirm its him before u run down … We can not miss my bro.
When the shooting went awry, the SILENT asked, “Is it done?”.
The assassins were on the run and hiding in the water. One wrote to SILENT, “We need help” and “Chopper is out”.
One of the men then revealed the target “wasn’t even there” and that they shot “some fat kid.”
“Did u hit the kid? F--k … How the f--k did this happen?” SILENT replied.
Police arrested Rizk at 7.14pm on Neville St, Oatley.
Asked why he was soaking wet, he told police he had been “swimming laps” with “Ian Thorpe”.
Osseili was arrested on July 19.
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