EXECUTION AT SERVICE STATION BOWSER

[AussieMark]

Execution style-murder at bowser

A MAN was shot dead today in a daylight execution at a south-western Sydney petrol station.

Police said the man, aged in his 20s, was shot by at least one assailant near a bowser at the independent petrol station AP at Punchbowl.

Several customers were at the service station on the corner of Dudley Street and the busy four-lane Punchbowl Road when the shooting happened about 2.30pm (AEDT), police said.

Acting Lakemba Superintendent Geoffrey Allen said it was too early in the investigation to link the murder to a string of drive-by shootings and the recent double murder at Greenacre, also in the city's south-west.

But police confirmed investigators from the 160-strong Strike Force Gain – launched by Police Commissioner Ken Moroney last week to rid the streets of "gun-toting thugs" – were at the scene today.

After today's shooting, a scuffle broke out near the crime scene between two groups of men who had arrived at the cordoned-off site.

However, it was not known if the men, who were screaming in Arabic and English, were friends or relatives of the victim.

One distraught young woman was shielded and assisted away from the scene after speaking with police.

Sixty of Strike Force Gain's 80 criminal investigators have been drawn from other operations, including Strike Force Grapple which is hunting the killers of 22-year-old mother of two Mervat Hamka and Ziad Abdulrazak, 24, who died after gunmen fired more than 100 bullets into a Greenacre home on October 14.

The suspected drive-by shooting happened blocks from where Ali Abdulrazak was shot up to 10 times in the head and chest outside Lakemba Mosque on August 29.

This afternoon, as forensic police arrived on scene, officers had cordoned off the entire block as they hunted for shell casings.

It has not yet been confirmed if the shooting victim was a walk-in or drive-in customer, although there was no car on scene and police confirmed they had not removed any vehicles from the area.

Supt Allen said several shots were fired, but could not confirm exactly how many.

But some residents reported hearing up to 15 gunshots.

Supt Allen also could not confirm reports that balaclava-clad drive-by shooters were responsible, nor could he reveal the nationality of the slain man.

"At the moment we just don't know if it's related to anything that's happened previously in this area," Supt Allen said at the scene.

[JCT777]

It is a shame that things like that happen.