Dramatic CCTV shows gunmen open fire in Sydney restaurant

Sydney Morning Herald

17-06-2025

Pointing to a bullet hole on the counter top, Rahimi said he hadn't realised shots had been fired so close to where he and his staff were working.
'I didn't even see this bullet coming,' he told Nine News.
During the shooting, Rahimi ran to the aid of his staff member, who was shot twice in the torso, applying pressure to her wounds while they waited for ambulances to arrive.
Rahimi said the 47-year-old mother has worked at the store for a couple of years, adding she was 'very hard-working, very honest, very nice lady'.
'My staff is my first priority now, so I just hope she's doing all right, and we will support her [with] anything we can,' he said.
'She doesn't deserve it, to get shot.'
A major manhunt continued on Tuesday for the shooters, with investigators probing three suspicious car blazes on Monday night as part of their inquiries.
A black Audi Q7, believed to be the gunmen's getaway vehicle, was found alight on Wigram Street in Harris Park just before 6pm.
Police believe the second vehicle found ablaze about 3.20am, a white ute in Greystanes, was used in another planned attack on Azari on June 13 in Rozelle.
'We believe [the incident] was another attempted attack on the 26-year-old male from the shooting yesterday,' Detective Superintendent Jason Box, the commander of Taskforce Falcon, said at a press conference.
'On this occasion, witnesses sighted a white ute with several occupants and their faces covered, and one occupant was believed to be holding a firearm. The 26-year-old male and his associates fled the scene.'
The 25-year-old associate who was shot on Monday, and remains in hospital in a critical but stable condition, was also present during the June 13 planned attack.
When police attended the Rozelle scene a short time later, Azari provided 'limited information' about the attempt on his life.
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'He was made aware of threats against his life. He acknowledged those threats against his life, to an extent, he was reasonably dismissive of what we had to say, and he's obviously continued his movements in the public area with not a great deal of concern,' Box said.
Police are still investigating whether a third vehicle that was set ablaze overnight, a red Commodore found outside a home in Merrylands, is connected to the attempts on Azari's life.
Police allege Azari has climbed the ranks of the Alameddine network to become one of its most senior members not to have fled overseas or be serving a lengthy prison sentence.
Investigators from Taskforce Falcon, established to crack down on escalating gangland violence, are probing whether Monday's shooters are the same men who opened fire on Azari last month on Woodville Road in Granville, killing Alameddine associate Dawood Zakaria, 32, and injuring Parramatta lawyer Sylvan Singh, 25. Zakaria died in hospital several days later.
A day after the assassination attempt, police warned Azari was at the 'epicentre' of an ongoing feud between the Alameddine clan and rival organised crime networks, and that he could be targeted as part of a 'tit-for-tat' gangland war if granted bail on firearms offences laid after the Granville shooting.
'There will be further bloodshed on the streets – the streets will not be safe,' police prosecutor Kai Jiang told Parramatta Local Court, in the failed attempt to keep Azari in custody.
Acting Police Commissioner Peter Thurtell on Monday said police held concerns a 'war' within the Alameddine network had imploded and spilled onto Sydney's streets.
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Multiple police sources not authorised to speak publicly say internal conflict between subgroups of the Alameddine crime network is to blame for the spate of shootings.
With no clear leader in the wake of kingpin Rafat Alameddine leaving Australia, tensions have risen between the Fijian-dominated KVT – a group who were previously used by the Alameddines as enforcers – and the so-called Afghani crew, as well as gang members aligned with other senior members of the crime group.
The ongoing conflict and recent shootings have sparked fears of attacks in the underworld, with several Alameddine members and associates taking measures to make themselves less predictable.
NSW Premier Chris Minns labelled the shooting labelled 'shockingly brazen'.