Brothers for Life sergeant-at-arms Michael Arbawi jailed for Coolaroo shooting

A feared Middle Eastern bikie gang sergeant-at-arms shot a man in Coolaroo leaving the victim requiring a colostomy bag.

Brothers for Life sergeant-at-arms Michael Arbawi was jailed for shooing a man.

A bikie enforcer stood next to a man and shot him in the torso after the unarmed victim declined to “take a little walk” with him.

Michael Arbawi, 28, was last month sentenced in the County Court to a minimum of five and a half years’ jail after pleading guilty to charges including recklessly causing serious injury, possessing a firearm and harassing a witness.

The court heard Arbawi was the Brothers for Life sergeant-at-arms when he shot a man with a sawn-off .22 bolt action rifle in Coolaroo just after 4.30am on September 5, 2019.

Arbawi had only met the man hours earlier and had taken a strong dislike to him after hearing the man was allegedly involved in an assault on Arbawi’s friend’s cousin.

Arbawi met the man at a mutual friend’s Coolaroo home sometime after 2.40am.

The pair were among a group of five who went on to Campbellfield’s Sylvania Hotel.

The court heard there was tension between Arbawi and the man on the car ride there, before Arbawi’s female friend convinced him to leave his gun in the car boot when they went into the pub.

The group then drove to pick up the friend’s car in Coolaroo about 4.30am.

When the car they were travelling in stopped, Arbawi got out and went around to where the man was sitting in the passenger seat.

Armed with his gun, Arbawi opened the car door and said to the man, “Let’s take a little walk” — a line Judge Michael Tinney said sounded like it was “almost straight out of a movie”.

The man refused and was trying to close the car door when Arbawi shot him.

The victim was driven to Northern Hospital, where he was admitted for six weeks and had to have multiple major surgeries to work on his ruptured bowel and remove 35cm of his large intestine.

The court heard the victim swas still in need of another two surgeries — more than 18 months later — and could need a colostomy bag for the rest of his life.

Judge Tinney said the shooting had undoubtedly had a “devastating” and truly “life-altering” impact on the man.

Judge Tinney said there was no explanation for the crime.

“You shot this man in a public place and he was doing nothing to deserve your attention,” Judge Tinney said.

Arbawi was arrested the following day and denied the crimes, but his gun was found stashed at a friend’s house.

The court heard Arbawi sent a shocking and threatening letter to a witness while in custody last year.

The letter made the witness reluctant to give evidence in the case, the court was told.

Judge Tinney dubbed the letter “a serious example of harassing a witness”.

Arbawi’s lawyer confirmed to the court his client was sergeant-at-arms for feared Middle Eastern criminal bikie gang Brothers for Life.

The court heard Arbawi, who had a significant criminal history, had only finished serving a lengthy jail sentence about three months before the shooting and was on bail at the time.

It was heard the former bricklayer, painter and storeman had a long history of drug addiction and suffered from PTSD.

Judge Tinney took into account Arbawi had not intended to kill the victim, his early guilty plea and he had been on remand during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Arbawi was sentenced to a maximum of eight years’ jail, having already served 572 days.

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