By Jenny Noyes
Sydney mother Lametta Fadlallah has been farewelled at her family’s local Maronite church after she and her hairdresser Amneh “Amy” al-Hazouri were shot dead in a suspected gangland hit this month.
The funeral at St Charbel’s Church in Punchbowl in Sydney’s southwest attracted a strong police presence on Monday morning, turning heads at the school next door.
Lametta Fadlallah’s mother and son outside St Charbel’s Church on Monday morning. Credit: Nick Moir
About 100 mourners attended the service, which was also streamed online.
Outside, a PolAir helicopter hovered overhead as highway patrol cars did laps of the block, while a handful of uniformed officers arrived on foot as the funeral drew to a close and mourners began leaving the church.
Fadlallah’s body was carried from the church in a white coffin adorned with white roses, dahlias and orchids, and family members gathered in the courtyard to release white balloons as the 48-year-old’s teenage son clutched a picture frame.
The funeral comes amid rumours swirling in Sydney’s criminal circles that someone was paid up to $500,000 to get rid of Fadlallah. Police are aware of the rumours but would not comment further.
Police are looking at a range of potential motives and circumstances – from personal relationships to criminal dealings – to identify those responsible.
Fadlallah and Hazouri, 39, were seated in the back of a car outside Fadlallah’s home in Panania on August 13 when at least two gunmen approached and fired multiple shots, avoiding a 20-year-old male driver and 16-year-old female passenger in the front but killing both women in the back.
Investigators believe Fadlallah, who was known to police through two previous marriages to Sydney crime figures, was the target of the assassination. Homicide Squad commander, Detective Superintendent Danny Doherty, described the killing as “an organised murder” and said police were working with the community in a bid to prevent retribution attacks.
Police have said they believe Hazouri, who had been doing Fadlallah’s hair before their night out, was not a target but collateral damage.
Doherty said the “rule book” had been “thrown out the window” with the murder of the two women.
The family of Hazouri, who live in Lebanon, described her as an innocent victim and their sole provider, and raised more than $20,000 through crowdfunding to have her body repatriated – but were distressed that they were unable to do so within the customary 24-hour period for Muslim burial.
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