Security vision has shown the brazen moment two masked gunmen shoot at an alleged underworld figure inside a Western Sydney kebab shop during lunchtime.
Alleged underworld figure Samimjan Azari, 26, was targeted for the third time early Monday afternoon inside M Brothers Takeaway shop in Auburn.
It is understood at least two masked gunmen opened fire on the Turkish kebab shop, hitting Azari in the arm and shoulder while a male friend was struck in the face.
A woman working at the eatery was also shot twice in the torso.
The gunmen, dressed in all black, could be seen on CCTV running along the footpath of South Parade, about 1.15pm when they storm inside the takeaway shop.
One shooter ran up to a table and fired a number of shots.
A man quickly grabbed a chair in an attempt to shield himself from the bullets.
Another man ran to the back of the store.
A male and female worker dived to the ground as the shots rang out.
Speaking to the media on Tuesday, M Brothers owner Mohammad Reza Rahimi said he spoke with the female worker’s daughter in hospital on Monday night.
“She was in (a) coma. No one was allowed to get in. I hope she’s doing alright,” he said.
Mr Rahimi said he was unsure if he will reopen the kebab store on Tuesday.
“We just need to see what’s the procedure … the cleaning is done,” he told reporters.
Mr Rahimi described the female worker, who he said he has known for a couple of years, as “hard-working”, honest and a “very nice lady”.
“The main thing for us, I hope she’s doing alright and I hope she feels better,” he said.
Mr Rahimi said he tended to his injured staffer after the shooting, applying pressure to her wound.
“The main thing was my staff, I was with her at the time, putting pressure on the bullet hole,” he said.
The owner, whose store has been operational since 2017, said he does not believe his workers were the target.
“I don’t believe it was us. I believe our staff were shot by accident. I just hope she’s doing alright,” he said.
Mr Rahimi said another worker in the store fainted when she heard the gunshots.
“It was basically shocking. We’d never seen something like that before. It was the first time,” he said.
A man who knew the female kebab shop worker earlier told Sky News Sydney reporter Crystal Wu he came through the area about five minutes after the shooting.
The local said he later learned three people had been shot.
“I couldn’t sleep last night because I know her very closely,” the man said, speaking about the injured woman. He described the store owners as “hardworking people”
Police said the shooters had tried to get access to an office inside the restaurant before they fled the scene in a black Audi Q7 with cloned number plates.
A few hours later a car matching the description was found on fire in Harris Park.
Emergency services were then called to two other vehicles fires in the area at Merrylands and Greystanes within ten minutes of one another early Tuesday morning.
The first blaze happened at the driveway of a Hilltop Road home in Merrylands about 3.10am. Firefighters extinguished the fire but the car sustained significant damage.
Later, a vehicle also parked outside a home was torched on Gerald Street in Greystanes.
Neighbours helped put out the flames but the car was destroyed.
A crime scene has been set up at both locations, with officers from Taskforce Falcon – who are also investigating the shooting – looking into the suspicious fires.
The Daily Telegraph’s Crime Editor Mark Morri told Sky News that detectives were probing whether the gunmen were hired through “air-tasking”.
The method sees a “contract killing” published on social media apps, such as Threema or WhatsApp, where it is then picked up by “certain people” for a specific price.
“I’ve since found out now someone might accept the job and payment can be anything from drugs, crypto, they’ll pay for it sometimes even in cars… it’s using the air tasking principle throughout the whole social media network and it’s been going on for quite some time,” he told AM Agenda host Laura Jayes.
Morri added “traditional hardened criminals” are these days often not the ones carrying out the attacks, with “anybody who’s willing to shoot for money” hired for the job.
NSW Police Acting Commissioner Peter Thurtell on Monday said the gunmen walked into the Turkish eatery and fired at least eight shots during lunch time.
“It’s beyond comprehension that three people be shot in a crowded Sydney street in broad daylight,” he said at a press conference.
Azari had survived two other attempted assassinations, one just weeks earlier in May and the other in February. He expressed concerns about his life on Friday.
The 26-year-old had reported to Auburn Police Station about one hour before the shooting.
“The fact that he was out again in public, I don’t know what that says, to be honest, about what he was thinking,” Act Comm Thurtell said on Monday.
Detectives are also probing whether the Auburn gunmen are the same ones who targeted three men parked at traffic lights in Granville last month.
Alleged Alameddine associate Darwood Zakaria, 32, died after being shot in the head.
Driver and lawyer Sylvan Singh, 25, desperately tried to escape and drove towards Parramatta before he stopped the car on Church St, near the M4 Motorway offramp.
The series of shootings in Sydney has sparked fears of an all-out gangland war.
Taskforce Falcon will look into 11 incidents dating back to December 2024.
It includes at least six public place shootings across Sydney, arsons at barbershops and the two shooting murders of John Versace, 23, who was set upon by a gunman in Condell Park, and David Khou, 31, gunned down outside his Canley Heights home.
