Five people shot in five days as Sydney's gun violence escalates

Ahmed Al Azzam, 25, was shot in the head while young couple Kaashif Richards, 22, and Achiraya Jantharat, 19, were injured in their car by the flurry of bullets while sitting metres in front of Al Azzam.

Al Azzam died in hospital on Thursday, police confirmed.

A tribute posted to social media called for Al Azzam’s family to be given “strength and patience” during the difficult time.

Richards remains in hospital while Jantharat has been discharged.

Superintendent Simon Glasser said police believe the “serious” shooting was targeted.

He was shot in the torso and leg while walking to his BMW parked in the driveway.

Police said the shooter or shooters fled while the 30-year-old was able to stumble inside and call triple zero.

”This is clearly a targeted and brazen shooting,” Detective Superintendent Adam Johnson.

Underworld figure Mahmoud “Brownie” Ahmad was shot dead on the same street in April last year.

A man in his 20s, who is yet to be formally identified, was shot dead on Broughton Street at 2am this morning.

Police are hunting for the gunman or gunmen involved in the three shootings, no arrests have been made yet.

Taskforce established to crack down on shootings

As a result of the spate of gun violence, NSW Police have launched Task Force Magnus to investigate the spate of recent shootings and “associated organised criminal activities”.

The task force is combining existing task forces into one including 70 detectives and 30 additional policing staff to patrol Sydney’s south-west.

Police said drugs and gangland rivalry will form part of the task force’s investigation.

Since these two brazen daylight crimes, there have been three shooting incidents in Greenacre and Canterbury.

No arrests have been made over the execution of Moradian nor the injury of the Siales.

Police Minister Yasmin Catley told Chris O’Keefe on 2GB she’s had a gutful of the criminal behaviour on Sydney’s streets which has sparked this new taskforce.

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“It is absolutely shocking,” she said.

She said the government and police are throwing everything at the gun violence problem “including the kitchen sink”.

All five recent shootings investigated are linked, police say

NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb said the past five shootings are believed to be linked.

“It’s important that we look for and assume as I said these are linked at this stage until proven otherwise,” she said.

“Therefore, if they’re linked, there’s a common denominator and we need to find that.”

O’Keefe said the spate of shootings is unacceptable.

“As it becomes more frequent and brazen I think Sydneysiders are feeling the obvious and inevitable outcome of this is, ‘I could be shot as collateral damage,'” he said.

“We can’t have people being murdered in daylight. We can’t have people being murdered on the streets or in suburbs full stop.”

He said it’s in part a result of the black market and the battle over drug supply.

“That black market is so lucrative at the moment that people are being shot dead in the streets,” he said.

She said it is a “sad indictment” that the streets of the city’s south-west are seeing this level of violence as residents live in fear.

Deputy Commissioner David Hudson said the three shootings in the past week, as well as Moradian’s execution and the Marrickville hair salon attack, have common links.

“Common modus operandi, common traits in relation to the way that the offences have been committed,” Hudson said.

He added that the offenders in these crimes often “have been outsourced by criminal groups to commit these acts of violence”.

“They’ve then been engaged in destroying their getaway vehicles,” he said.

Hudson said these criminals will end up in one of two places: “In the back of a paddy wagon heading to Long Bay or the back of a hearse heading to Rookwood cemetery.”