Non-fatal shootings during Middle Eastern organised crime wars put public at risk

For every Middle Eastern organised crime murder in Melbourne, there have been plenty more non-fatal shootings, where those pulling the trigger had little care for the risk to the public.

For every MEOC murder in Melbourne in the past decade, there have been plenty more non-fatal shootings.

Many have been carried out late at night in carparks or other quiet meeting places away from prying eyes, the victims later presenting themselves to hospital hoping to avoid uncomfortable questions from police.

But there are others which have unfolded in public places where those pulling the trigger clearly had little care for the risk to the public, seizing the opportunity to attack when their victim was exposed.

Douglas Mikhaeel was lucky to escape with his life in an ambush as his car stopped at a Deer Park level crossing in 2023.

His partner and her children were in the car as Mikhaeel, a former member of George Marrogi’s Notorious Crime Family, was blasted with shots.

Former Comanchero bikie Hawre Sherwani was walking his dog in a Fraser Rise park when more than 20 shots were fired at him from an Audi S3, narrowly missing a woman preparing her dinner.

Sherwani died last month when a hit team posing as cops intercepted him.

Footage showed Hawre Sherwani knocking on the door of a Caroline Springs property before succumbing to his injuries. Picture: 7NEWS

A teenage girl went close to being shot when a stray bullet from a semi-automatic pistol hit her bed.

In May last year, a leading player in Melbourne’s tobacco wars was tracked by two vehicles until he stopped for traffic lights at a freeway on-ramp in Jacana.

A gunman opened fire in a broad daylight attack which left the victim – who drove himself to hospital – with life-threatening injuries.

A 20-year-old man was shot at 5am in the Whittlesea Public Gardens at Thomastown in February, 2023.

Back in 2022, a hit team pounced on Sam “The Punisher” Abdulrahim in a bungled bid to kill him at his cousin’s funeral.

Mongol bikie Shane Bowden was shot in the leg in an Epping driveway in July, 2021, just a fortnight after being released from prison.

A hit team finished off Bowden later that year on the Gold Coast.

The former Mongols enforcer was shot up to 12 times at point-blank range outside his Gold Coast home.

In the same year, a crime figure opened fire on a home in the northern suburbs after a nightclub fracas.

Exiled Comanchero Hasan Topal allegedly had no regard for who he shot, being a suspect in two mistaken identity homicides.

He also shot and wounded three Bandido bikies on the Bolte Bridge, a crime which could have killed either by gunshot wound or collision.

Mark Balsillie, nowadays the president of the Finks bikie gang, was shot in a nightclub in the same year, probably by Topal.

In 2017, futsal players at a Coolaroo stadium ran for their lives as a gunman opened fire on a man in what police later said was an attempted murder.

Crime boss Ahmed Al Hamza was of interest to investigators in that matter.

Mohammed Oueida, on remand in Perth over drug charges, was with mates near a Coburg mosque when he was wounded in the abdomen by bullets fired by Omar Tiba in a drive-by ambush.

In 2016, Nabil Maghnie somehow survived being shot in the head as he sat in his car at an unknown location.

Despite being severely wounded, Maghnie observed MEOC shooting victim protocol by driving himself to hospital.