Auburn shooting: Reason behind Hamzy and Alameddine gang war revealed

The incidents leading up to a bloody Sydney gang war - in which an innocent father-to-be was killed and a nurse injured - have been revealed.

A bloody Sydney gang war in which an innocent father-to-be was slain in his car and a stray bullet missed a hospital nurse on duty by less than a metre all started over a street brawl and a stolen phone.

The beating of a foot soldier for a crime family and the theft of his phone last October has set in train a series of events which have led to an ugly spate of gunfire on suburban streets and two murders.

In the latest shooting in the war ­between the Hamzy and Alameddine families, a hail of bullets on what was thought to be the townhouse of Hamzy matriarch Maha Hamze in a failed attack which also nearly claimed the life of a nurse working in nearby Auburn Hospital. There is no suggestion that Ms Hamze is herself involved in any wrongdoing.

Police at the Auburn crime scene on Tuesday. Picture: John Grainger

Bullets were fired at an Auburn Road building with one bullet passing through the bottom of a second story window. Picture: John Grainger

Stray rounds fired about 8pm whizzed past the row of townhouses on Auburn Rd and through the window of a hospital room where the nurse was treating a patient.

The bullet narrowly flew past her into the hallway before lodging in a cupboard.

The nurse was treated for minor injuries to her back, believed to have come from shards of glass or when she jumped in fright and hit the wall behind her after hearing the gunshot.

But the shooters shot up the wrong unit, four doors from where Maha Hamze lives.

The bloody street war has already claimed the life of Moustafa Naaman three weeks ago, who was shot in Hurstville in an apparent failed hit on Ibrahem Hamze, because the father-to-be had a similar build and was getting into a similar car.

“It’s concerning when good people are put in danger,’’ Deputy Commissioner Dave Hudson said.

“We are putting more resources, carrying out more search warrants and Firearm Prohibition Orders. We intend to put these people back in their box,‘’ he said.

He also said police have strong leads in the investigation to the ­Auburn shooting and expect “a quick resolution.”

Police intelligence reports given to the NSW Supreme Court said tensions first flared on October 14 when an Alameddine associate Shaylin Zreika was attacked and a phone ­belonging to the family was stolen.

Two days later an Alameddine crew member was robbed of drugs by a Hamzy, escalating the feud.

Ten shots were sprayed the following night into the area around Maha Hamze’s Auburn Rd home, the same place where she was shot eight times in 2013, and where it was ­believed Ibrahem Hamze was living at the time.

It is also where his brother Bilal, ­recently released from jail, lived.

The Auburn Road crime scene on Tuesday. Picture: John Grainger

Police return to the Auburn Road crime scene on Tuesday. Picture: John Grainger

Then just after midnight on October 19, the home of Rafat Alameddine at Merrylands was shot at.

Seven hours later Mejid Hamzy, the brother of Brothers for Life Boss Bassam Hamzy, was shot dead at his Condell Park home.

Desperate to stop the war, police were granted special crime prevention orders limiting the movements of some of the crime members.

However, the move turned out to have little impact on the shootings, which continued unabated. Both police and credible underworld sources said they were aware of talk that contracts have been placed on the lives of two members of the Hamzy clan.

The Daily Telegraph has also been told a well-known hit man is being supposedly sourced by one of the families to carry out a number of shootings for them.

Embarrassingly for NSW police, the injury to the nurse comes just weeks after senior officers sat down and asked for a special briefing on the shootings and gang wars in southwest Sydney.

Police return to the Auburn Road crime scene on Tuesday. Picture: John Grainger

A nurse was injured after a shooting on Auburn Road on Monday night. Picture: John Grainger

Despite increasing search warrants on known criminals and other ­attempts to disrupt the crime syndicates the shootings have continued.

Former NSW Assistant Commissioner and former gang squad boss Ken McKay said the government needed to legislate for mandatory two-year jail terms for gun possession.

“There are so many guns out there now it’s ridiculous, nearly every two bit crim has one and when they are getting caught they often don’t get any jail time,’’ he said.

“It will go a long way to stopping gun violence if you know you are going to cop a couple of years just for carrying a weapon,” he said.

While the Hamzy-Alameddine feud is the most visible at the ­moment, two other underworld conflicts have also resulted in murders on suburban Sydney streets in just the past six months.

Former Comanchero bikie Fares Abounader, a former ally of slain gang boss Mick Hawi, was shot and killed at his Panania home last August ­because he was believed to be defecting to fierce rivals the Bandidos.

And rivalry between two Assyrian street gangs could have claimed the life of True Kings senior member Amar Kettule who was killed in a Fairfield laneway in the early hours of January 10.

True Kings are the mortal enemies of DLASTHR, another Assyrian street gang who also had a member survive a shooting last year.