Sydney has been rocked by a “brazen” gangland-style shooting at the Harold Park Hotel that left one man dead and another fighting serious gunshot wounds.
Around 6.40pm on Sunday emergency services were called to the pub in Forest Lodge, to reports that two men had been shot multiple times and the assailants had fled.
It’s understood a group of five men had been at The Harold since about midday watching a UFC event. As the victims left, toward their Ford Ranger Raptor parked on Wigram Street, police say they appear to have been “ambushed” by at least one person with a weapon.
Multiple shots were fired, one said to have whizzed by and “narrowly missed” a staffer picking up glasses outside, as a bullet hit one of the pub windows. A witness recalled thinking it was firecrackers going off as she heard around a dozen shots, before seeing people running and screaming.
Two men who had been enjoying farewell drinks outside told the ABC they heard loud bangs, before two guys ran around the corner, followed by another guy who they “could clearly see he had a gun … and he was pulling the trigger”. The two patrons ran inside and dived on the floor, to cries of “there’s someone with a gun”. Later they observed a bullet hole in the glass right where they had sheltered.
Another said she saw a man shot “at least six times”.
39-year-old Gilbert Shino was treated by police, who were nearby and arrived swiftly, and by both paramedics and a doctor on hand, but he died at the scene. He is said to have been known to police through his associations with Assyrian organised crime gangs.
31-year-old Maradona Yalda is also alleged to have links to an Assyrian organised crime group, specifically DLASTHR (aka ‘The Last Hour’), based in Sydney’s west, and of being a close associate of a known former member of outlaw motorcycle gang the Comancheros. He had returned to Australia less than a week prior, and had been warned by police of threats to his life.
Shino was shot and fell near their vehicle. Yalda attempted to run back to the hotel, which was reportedly quite crowded at the time, but was chased by the gunman and struck in the neck, chest and abdomen before slumping over a garbage bin on Alfred Street.
Police provided first aid, assisted by medical students in the hotel at the time, before he was treated by paramedics and rushed to Royal Prince Alfred Hospital. Following a second round of surgeries he was said to be in a stable condition on Monday.
There is no suggestion of any wrongdoing by Yalda.
Assyrian gangs became the subject of news in the 1990s over bloody wars for control of Sydney’s drug trade, and the murder of off-duty police officer David Carty, found stabbed and bashed, in 1997. Years of incidents led to targeted intervention by police and the groups were largely eradicated.
DLASTHR is thought to be a descendent of the notorious Assyrian Kings.
Police established a crime scene around the inner west hotel, which was evacuated and locals told to stay indoors. Leichhardt detectives and the homicide squad began investigations.
They have not ruled out a second assailant. The shooter is believed to have fled first on foot, before escaping in a vehicle. Police were seeking a dark Ford Mustang seen in the area at the time. A car fitting the description was found ablaze in Rydalmere around 10pm Monday and extinguished by a local fire crew.
Detectives hope to assemble CCTV from the pub and surroundings and are appealing for witnesses or dashcam footage.
At a press conference on Monday Det Supt Alfio Sergi of Leichhardt Police Area Command commended those on the scene for their help and “quick actions”.
Although still in early stages of the investigation, he offered that the “outrageous, brazen, callous attack” was an extremely dangerous situation and likely “targeted” at Yalda.
“Obviously we’ll be looking at links with organised crime networks,” stated Sergi. “That will be a focus of our investigation.”
The area outside the hotel remained a crime scene for much of Monday as sections of Wigram Road and Ross Street remained cordoned off by police tape, and markers indicating the location of bullet casings dotted footpaths outside The Harold. Roadblocks caused traffic disruption throughout Forest Lodge, Glebe and Annandale.
Despite the disruption, the Hotel confirmed it reopened around 3:30 Monday afternoon.
This shooting ends a lull in gang violence that had peppered Sydney’s west earlier this year, as underworld figures feuded and were in turn targeted. The incident on Sunday is not thought to be connected to other recent conflicts.
“It’s deplorable, it’s disgusting, it’s the kind of thing that you don’t expect to see in a reasonably safe city like Sydney,” said NSW Premier Chris Minns on Monday, promising a “comprehensive” police response.
“NSW Police have locked up and put in jail for decades the people who are responsible for these violent public gangland crimes.”
