The nephew of gangster Mahmoud ‘Brownie’ Ahmad could have been shot in front of his pregnant wife and two-year-old child for one of three reasons, police believe.
Rami Iskander, 23, was shot in the torso in front of his family at his home on Knox Street at Belmore just before 4am on Saturday.
Relatives performed CPR on the man in a desperate attempt to revive him. Paramedics then arrived on scene and tried to treat his injuries before he died.
Police believe Iskander was targeted for one of three reasons, with the latest attack bringing the number of gangland style executions to rock the city in the past 18 months up to 13.
The nephew of gangster Mahmoud ‘Brownie’ Ahmad could have been shot in front of his pregnant wife and two-year-old child for one of three reasons, police believe
The death of Iskander brings the number of gangland style executions to rock the city in the past 18 months up to 13
The first theory is that Iskander could have been shot pre-emptively to stop him carrying out a revenge plot after his uncle Ahmad was gunned down on April 27
The first theory is that Iskander could have been shot pre-emptively to stop him carrying out a revenge plot after his uncle Ahmad was gunned down on April 27.
Ahmad was fatally shot outside a Greenacre property after a $1million bounty was placed on his head.
The second theory is that Iskander was targeted in retaliation for the shooting of Comanchero boss Tarek, 41, and his brother Omar Zahed, 39, on Tuesday.
The pair were sprayed with bullets as they were leaving a BodyFit gym on Parramatta Road in Auburn, western Sydney.
The third theory is that Iskander disrespected a person’s wife or girlfriend and was shot in retaliation.
State Crime Command Director detective chief superintendent Darren Bennett said police were dealing with a ‘spate of tit-for-tat shootings around organised criminals around southwest Sydney’.
‘We’ve clearly got a war-of-sorts in south-western Sydney around drug supply and organised crime,’ he said.
Superintendent Bennett said Iskander was on a list of people under police surveillance.
‘We’ve got a list of people we focus on. This person who is now deceased, was part of that cabal,’ he said.
State Crime Command Director detective chief superintendent Darren Bennett said police were dealing with a ‘spate of tit-for-tat shootings around organised criminals around south-west Sydney’
Police officers and forensic specialists are seen at the scene on the morning of the attack
Police have closed down Knox Street and set up a crime scene.
Moments following the shooting emergency services were called to help a pregnant woman who went into labour and an elderly man who suffered a fall.
One neighbour said they were woken up by the sound of gunshots.
‘My wife said did you hear that? I think that was gunshots,’ he told Daily Telegraph.
Another neighbour said they heard ’10 gunshots’ before they saw a car speed away down the street.
A resident who is a nurse said they attempted to perform CPR on the 23-year-old man who had been shot.
Police found a burned out car parked in the nearby suburb of Croydon.
It is the second shooting in a week after Comanchero boss Tarek, 41, and his brother Omar Zahed, 39, were gunned down while leaving a BodyFit gym on Parramatta Road in Auburn, western Sydney, on Tuesday.
Tarek was shot up to 10 times and remains under police guard as he recovers in Westmead Hospital.
Police found a burned out car parked in a nearby suburb following the shooting on Saturday morning
Moments following the shooting emergency services were called to help a pregnant woman who went into labour and an elderly man who suffered a fall
Ahmad was fatally shot outside a Greenacre property after a $1million bounty was placed on his head
Takek Zahed (seated) and his brother Omar (standing) were gunned down outside a gym in Sydney’s west on Tuesday night
His brother Omar died at the scene and was laid to rest at Rookwood Cemetery.
Mourners, some wearing balaclavas, arrived at the gravesite and embraced Muslim friends and family of the slain man.
Among them was underworld identity, Ahmed Elomar, the brother of ISIS terrorist Mohamed Elomar.
Elomar told Daily Mail Australia that Omar’s fatal shooting was evidence of the ‘shocking state of affairs for young Muslim men in Sydney’.
‘This generation is all over the place,’ he said.
‘What happened, who knows?’.
Mr Elomar said he had been a good friend of Omar who he had known in and out of jail.
A former champion boxer, Elomar served three years in prison for assaulting a policeman at the infamous 2021 pro-Islamic State riots in Hyde Park.
The body of slain bikie associate Omar Zahed is carried from the back of a hearse to his grave at Rookwood Cemetery
A mourner, who did not want to be identified, told Daily Mail Australia that Tarek was ‘out of a coma, but still not talking’.
Police are investigating whether the brazen gangland hit may have been an inside job sparked by an internal power struggle within the Comanchero.
Police had warned the brothers as recently as Thursday last week that their lives were at risk, however their advice went unheeded.
Homicide Squad Commander Detective Superintendent Danny Doherty said police are investigating possible motives for the assassination attempt, refusing to rule out the possibility of an inside job.
‘We can’t discount an internal conflict,’ he told reporters.
‘There is opportunities for people to take their place and there’s a real power struggle within organised crime organisations.’
NSW Police established a new strike force to investigate the shootings.
