Leading underworld figure gunned down in Sydney gang slaying
Notorious Sydney underworld figure Bilal Hamze has died in a hail of bullets in the heart of Sydney’s CBD overnight.
Police and forensic teams continued to comb the scene of the fatal shooting.(AAP: Dean Lewins)
The 34-year-old is the cousin of Brothers for Life founder and Goulburn Supermax inmate Bassam Hamzy.
Emergency services were called to Bridge Street, near Circular Quay, just before 10.30pm Thursday, following reports a man had been shot.
The shooter is believed to have fled in a black Audi, which was later found burnt out in Northwood on Sydney’s lower north shore.
Hamze was treated at the scene for multiple gunshot wounds before being taken to St Vincent’s Hospital where he died a short time later.
The execution-style shooting appears to be the result of an ongoing feud between Sydney’s Hamze and Alameddine crime families.
Detectives from the NSW Police State Crime Command’s Homicide Squad have established Strike Force Englorie to investigate the death.
In March 2013, Bilal Hamze’s mother Maha Hamze was shot in the legs through the door of her home in Auburn in western Sydney. She survived.
The shooting was sparked by a debt recovery fee feud between her son and another man.
Her home was shot up again in October last year.
On the same day, Bilal Hamze’s cousin Mejid Hamzy was shot dead at his Condell Park home.
Senior police will hold a press conference about the shooting on Friday.
