Source : the age
A man has been shot dead in the doorway of a western Sydney home with two children inside in what police are treating as the second mistaken-identity shooting in the city in as many days.
The man, believed to have been aged in his 40s, was killed at the duplex in Merrylands West a day after university student Marco Tapia was shot dead inside his family’s home in what detectives believe was a botched targeted assassination.
Wednesday’s brazen shooting, believed to be linked to organised crime, marks the most significant escalation in Sydney’s ongoing gangland conflicts in several years and has alarmed senior police.
“It’s very early on in the investigation, however, tragically, that is a possibility that the wrong person has been shot by these offenders,” Detective Superintendent Simon Glasser said.
Police are reviewing CCTV footage of a grey Audi sedan in the area at the time of the shooting. Video posted by social media channel SCN Worldstar on Wednesday night appears to show the sedan stopping outside the house before shots are fired from the back passenger window.
The footage seems to have been captured by a security camera at the front yard of the property where the man was shot.
Glasser said the owners of the home in Bruce Street were known to police and linked to organised crime. The victim did not live at the property, but had arrived there with a resident and two children moments before he was shot about 3.15pm.
“The victim has no links to organised crime that we are aware of; however, he is associated with people that reside at this address,” Glasser said.
It is not yet known why the victim, who was a business associate of one of the residents, was at the property, Glasser said. The victim is yet to be formally identified.
Detectives are investigating if the shooting is linked to the killing of Tapia in Glen Alpine and ongoing conflicts with Sydney’s Alameddine crime family and rival groups, including the self-proclaimed Coconut Cartel.
Children’s bikes, play equipment and toys were visible at the front and rear of one home cordoned off by police tape in Merrylands West. Bullet casings could be seen on the ground near a damaged front gate.
The shooting took place a few hundred metres from a school on the same street.
“This has occurred around the approximate time of most schools finishing. There are a number of schools in the vicinity, a number of parks,” Glasser said.
“This is a highly dangerous and reckless act that’s been carried out here on a public street.”
The mistaken identity attacks on Tapia and several others, including the alleged kidnapping and murder of Sydney grandfather Chris Baghsarian in February, has alarmed senior police, who say criminals are younger and more amateurish and brazen than ever.
The 23-year-old’s murder drew comparisons to the assassination of plumber John Versace, also 23, whose killing outside his family’s Condell Park home in May last year sparked the establishment of Taskforce Falcon, a 150-strong police operation targeting escalating gangland violence.
Both Tapia and Versace were known to police only through a singular traffic offence and had no known links to organised crime.
“He was innocent,” one of Tapia’s relatives told the Herald on Tuesday.
Jack Gramenz is a breaking news reporter at The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via email.
