Dying man asked to name his attacker
Yoni Bashan, Sophie Ly and Carleen Frost
The Daily Telegraph
March 16, 2013 12:00AM
A DYING man who was shot in the head in Sydney's southwest yesterday was desperately asked by police to name his attacker using his last breaths.
The Sunday Telegraph has confirmed the deceased man is Khaled Kahwaji, who was charged with the murder of Saba Kairouz in August 2010.
Kahwaji was named on social media last night about 7pm though police asked it be withheld from publication for operational reasons.
Investigators are focusing their main line of inquiry to include a retaliation attack in relation to that murder, but are also investigating links with the shooting of a crime family matriarch on Auburn road at Auburn last Saturday.
The victim in that case, revealed by this newspaper earlier this week, was the aunt of Supermax inmate Bassam Hamzy, the founder of the organised crime group Brothers For Life.
Police later said they were bracing for an escalation in violence over the attack, which saw her shot four times in the legs at her front door.
Witnesses living on Wilbur St at Greenacre said they tried to help Kahwaji as he lay on the road just after being shot in the back of the head about 6pm last night.
The shooting happened outside a home which was later surrounded by police tactical operatives and the dog squad, who ordered the occupants, on loud speaker, to come outside.
After approximately one hour they then stormed the premises, though no arrests were made.
"We were trying to talk to him and just saying 'can you hear us'," a neighbour, who heard about five shots, told The Sunday Telegraph.
"The first thing police asked him was 'do you know who did this'."
Two search warrants were carried out by heavily armed officers later in the evening on the same street.
Police, the Homicide Squad and about seven riot squad officers have today returned to the scene, blocking off Wilbur st to door knock homes and conduct a line search for further evidence.
Police described the killing of Kahwaji, believed to be 30 years old, as a targeted attack.
He was shot a number of times, including the back of the head, while sitting in a Silver Mazda 3 on leafy Wilbur Lane about 6.15pm.
His body was found lying next to the car which had bullet holes in the driver's side door and about another three in the windscreen.
"This is not a random incident. This person has been targeted and it's certainly not something that is random," Bankstown police Superintendent Dave Eardley said.
"It's certainly an act that's quite vicious and callous."
In a shocking scene now regularly confronting residents of Sydney's western and southwestern suburbs, the street was shut down as more than 30 police scoured the area for evidence.
Forensic detectives and investigators from the Homicide Squad were also called in to assess the scene. Local residents returning from work were unable to enter their homes as the street was blocked off for about 100m.
Police cars and ambulance vans also clogged the street.
A group, believed to be members of the man's family, arrived on the scene soon after police arrived. There were hysterical scenes as several women in the group made their way towards the police barrier to view the body.
Police said it was too soon to say if the killing was related to motorcycle gangs but Supt Eardley said investigators were "not ruling anything out".
Yesterday's killing marks the 35th shooting in NSW this year - more than three a week - with 10 this month alone.
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