{"id":910587,"date":"2026-09-30T04:28:16","date_gmt":"2026-09-30T04:28:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/910587\/"},"modified":"2026-09-30T04:28:16","modified_gmt":"2026-09-30T04:28:16","slug":"marco-tapia-shooting-alleged-gunman-among-three-more-charged-over-students-mistaken-identity-murder-in-glen-alpine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/910587\/","title":{"rendered":"Marco Tapia shooting: Alleged gunman among three more charged over student\u2019s mistaken identity murder in Glen Alpine"},"content":{"rendered":"

Updated September 30, 2026 \u2014 11:56am,first published September 30, 2026 \u2014 4:33am<\/p>\n

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A trio of Victorians, including a 16-year-old boy, allegedly shot an innocent Sydney university student dead in his bedroom during a botched attack on an organised crime figure living on the same street.<\/p>\n

Detectives believe the group mistakenly killed 23-year-old Marco Tapia<\/a> after forcing their way into his family\u2019s Glen Alpine home in the early hours of September, and are investigating the intended target\u2019s links to Sydney\u2019s criminal underworld.<\/p>\n

\"MarcoMarco Tapia was shot dead while in bed at his family\u2019s Sydney home.<\/p>\n

Homicide squad detectives on Tuesday charged Vaifaalie Tuafuti, 23, Omar Mohamed, 22, and a 16-year-old boy, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, with murder, two counts of special aggravated break and enter and committing a serious indictable offence, and possessing an unauthorised prohibited firearm. All three are due to face court on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Detectives believe the group was targeting a man with links to organised crime who lived on the same street as Tapia. They are investigating whether he was being targeted because of his suspected connection to the Coconut Cartel, a criminal group feuding with Sydney\u2019s Alameddine crime family over control of the city\u2019s lucrative illicit drug market. Police have warned the suspected target about threats to his life.<\/p>\n

Detective Superintendent Joe Doueihi, the commander of NSW Police\u2019s homicide squad, said investigators were yet to identify the alleged gunman.<\/p>\n

\u201cMr Tapia was a completely innocent party,\u201d Doueihi said.<\/p>\n

Detectives will allege in court that the trio broke into the Glen Alpine home before shooting Tapia in his bed. One of the trio is alleged to have been armed with a pistol.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe trio charged with murder were earlier extradited from Victoria.NSW Police<\/p>\n

The trio was extradited from Victoria on September 18, along with a 26-year-old woman, Amenah Abusud.<\/p>\n

Abusud has not been charged with Tapia\u2019s murder, but she has been charged with criminal group and accessory offences.<\/p>\n

Police alleged during an extradition hearing in Melbourne Magistrates Court<\/a> this month that the group worked for the Alameddine family.<\/p>\n

The trio has been charged over separate attacks, including a home invasion at Hurstville in Sydney\u2019s south, and the shooting of several cars in nearby Turrella the night before Tapia was killed.<\/p>\n

Ballistic analysis found discharged cartridge cases at the two scenes were \u201cpositively matched\u201d to the Glen Alpine crime scene where a firearm was found, a NSW Police officer testified in court. The gun used in the shooting was seized from Tapia\u2019s bedroom, where one of the assailants dropped it during a struggle with the 23-year-old.<\/p>\n

The court was told the Victorians left their Airbnb at Campbelltown, in Sydney\u2019s south-west about 1.50am on September 1 and returned about 4am, \u201cwhere they appear to be in a rush to collect their belongings before all leaving\u201d.<\/p>\n

Two boys, aged 14 and 16, were earlier charged<\/a> with staging vehicles and providing the weapon. They remain in custody and are due to face court again on November 13.<\/p>\n

Doueihi said combating the increasing involvement of teenagers in organised crime required a combined effort from the NSW government, police and the wider community.<\/p>\n

\u201cCrime doesn\u2019t pay,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you are a young person out there, and someone\u2019s trying to entice you into this type of crime or some type of activity, you will be caught. You\u2019re not smarter than the police; we have our capability. We have the expertise.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"JackJack Gramenz<\/a> is a breaking news reporter at The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via email<\/a>.\"SarahSarah McPhee<\/a> is the Overnight Homepage Editor for The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Updated September 30, 2026 \u2014 11:56am,first published September 30, 2026 \u2014 4:33am Save You have reached your maximum…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":910588,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-910587","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/910587","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=910587"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/910587\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/910588"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=910587"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=910587"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=910587"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}