A Sydney underworld associate’s home has been shot at overnight, with video showing the moment about 30 rounds were fired into a property as two women and a child were inside.Â
In security camera vision taken from near Hunt Street in Guildford West a white hatchback can be seen pulling up to the home just after midnight on Sunday.
From there, the gunman can be heard loading a firearm and seen appearing to step out of the driver’s seat before dozens of shots ring out on the quiet street.
Dozens of shells could be seen on the suburban street in Western Sydney after the incident. (ABC News: Jean Kennedy )
Sources have told the ABC the home belongs to an associate of the Alameddine crime family.
The Alameddines operate an organised crime network out of Western Sydney, and police say they believe a recent surge in public shootings is linked to an internal feud.
The person sources told the ABC was the intended target of Sunday morning’s shooting also had his shop in Merrylands torched twice in two nights earlier this year.
Police said the two women, aged 45 and 23, and a seven-year-old child inside the property at the time were not injured during the attack.
NSW Police Inspector Ricki Lindner said officers had located a firearm inside the gunman’s car after it was found burnt-out in a nearby street three hours after the shooting.
NSW Police have set up a crime scene and have been combing over the street in Guildford West for most of Sunday. (ABC News: Jean Kennedy )
“Naturally they’re [the women] quite rattled,” Inspector Lindner told reporters on Sunday.
“Yes police have been speaking with the women and they’re helping with ongoing enquiries, it’s not a nice thing to have occurred to them.
“It’s outrageous that this sort of thing is happening in the community.”
Bullet casings were discovered littered across the roadway, with some not found by officers until Sunday afternoon.
One of the women who was inside the house told the ABC she was there with her frail mother, who has cancer.Â
She said the incident had been “terrifying” and the offender had gone after a cancer patient.
Inspector Ricki Lindner says the women who were inside the house were “quite rattled”. (ABC News)
‘Lost count’ of the bullets
Inspector Lindner declined to answer when asked how many bullets were fired, but she said links to the Alameddine feud and the barber shop torching were “lines of enquiry”.
Local resident Sayed Musavii said he was at home smoking shisha with his brother, while a younger sibling slept, when he heard a loud “boom”.Â
He said at first he thought it was New Year’s fireworks, but later realised it was the sound of bullets.
“I just heard boom, boom, boom, boom, boom — a lot of shots to be honest, I lost the count,” he said.
“Then I jumped out, no-one was there, I didn’t see nothing, but I just heard the noise.”Â
A local resident has described hearing what he initially thought were fireworks. (ABC News)
Mr Musavii said the police arrived soon after and his neighbours had come out of their houses to see what was happening.
The shooting had left him concerned about safety in the street, he said, but not afraid. Â
“[I’m] more cautious about the future, this stuff is not really good, we’ve got kids here … and they’re growing up and this kind of environment is not really safe for the future,” he said.
‘It’s not a good image for the area. It’s very quiet, [a] very nice area here Guilford West, but this stuff happening is not a very good image.”
Detectives are appealing for members of the community with any vision to come forward and assist police with finding the gunman.