Truck driver Bob Knight killed by stray bullet in case that haunts former cop

Ten years after innocent truck driver Bob Knight was killed by a ‘gangster’s’ stray bullet in the unlikeliest of circumstances, former cop Mark Smith still can’t come to terms with the shocking ‘sliding doors’ moment. LISTEN NOW

Even after ten years, retired NSW detective inspector Mark Smith can’t believe the path travelled by a stray bullet — fired by a would-be gangster — that took the life of an innocent truck driver in a Sydney suburb.

As the anniversary of Bob Knight’s death nears, the former top cop is haunted by the many variables that were the difference between life and death after two warring families got into a gunfight.

Bob Knight died when he was shot in the head while driving his truck at Milperra. File picture

“One of these bullets, somehow, has travelled across six lanes of traffic, through all these bushes, past signs, past buildings, and Bob Knight in his truck, minding his own business, has been struck on the temple by a bullet from these idiots, who are just firing indiscriminately at each other,’’ he told True Crime Australia’s Police Tape podcast.

“It still does my head in that it’s been able to get through all these trees, bushes, without any deviation, without anything, without the trajectory changing, and it struck Bob in the temple.”

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Smith said Knight was simply driving his truck along Milperra Road about 10.30pm on the night of June 25, 2009, when the bullet hit.

“Do you call it coincidence, do you call it fate or do you call it just sheer bad luck. I don’t know,” he said.

Mahmoud Mariam was jailed for manslaughter over Knight’s death.

The driver was the innocent victim of a dispute between two families. File pictures

Earlier that day, there had been a physical argument between young men from the rival families at a Bankstown shopping centre, which led to threats of retaliation.

“It continued on into the night. There were phone calls made and threats made and all this stuff, so they wanted to organise a meeting to sort the whole thing out … and it was going to be at a car park in the KFC out at Milperra,’’ Smith said.

“The Mariam family has gone out there in a van. And the lead member of the family, Mahmoud Mariam, when they’ve arrived out there, has jumped out of the van with his Ruger 22 firearm, just like a typical Saturday night gangster, just letting loose with gunshots everywhere.’’

Knight’s truck led a motorcade of mourners at his funeral in Canberra. File picture

One bullet then took its fateful path, hitting 66-year-old Knight, from Canberra, who had been a truck driver for years, was a family man and “a lovely bloke”, said Smith.

“Now there is conjecture as to whether he died immediately, or whether the truck just slowly came to a halt, or he pulled the truck over, but he died as a result of that.”

Smith called it a “sliding doors moment” where one small change in circumstances could have seen a very different result.

“Two seconds earlier, if he just braked a few seconds earlier, if he’d taken off a bit earlier, he wouldn’t have been in the right position. If his tyres were down — (if) the pressure was low on it and it was down 20 mil — it would have missed.”

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Bob’s wife Jeanette Knight and her granddaughter Alli with a picture of Bob. File picture

Knight was simply doing his job when he died. File picture

In 2012, Mahmoud Mariam, now 36, was found not guilty of murder, but guilty of manslaughter.

The Crown successfully appealed his original minimum sentence of five years and nine months in 2013, and it was increased to more that nine years, but that was little consolation to the Knight family or Smith.

“It’s still not a lot for taking someone’s life. It is insufficient for murder … but when you look at things like manslaughter it’s probably a normal sentence,’’ Smith said.

But he argued that if someone had been in a gunfight, fired a gun and killed someone — even if it was not the intended target — that was murder.

Not long after the Knight case, Smith retired from the police force.

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Originally published as Truck driver Bob Knight killed by stray bullet in case that haunts former cop