A nine-year-old girl caught in a violent underworld shooting is now too terrified to leave her bedroom after being shot in the hip by a suspected gunman.
The little girl was wearing her Dr Seuss pajamas when Mahmoud Rizk and his alleged accomplice arrived at her home in Connells Point, south of Sydney, in a black BMW sedan shortly before 5 p.m. on July 8, 2022.
As she and her two siblings helped their mother unload Woolworths shopping bags, a series of bullets suddenly rang out, with one hitting the little girl in the hip.
As she lay bleeding on the ground, she asked, “Mom, am I going to die?”
The suspected shooter was looking for an associate of the Brothers 4 Life gang, a criminal group founded by the feared Hamze family, the Today’s telegraph reports.
New South Wales police still do not know who staged the planned shooting, believed to be one of the worst shootings in Sydney’s gang warfare history.
Pictured is police body camera footage from inside the Connells Point home of a nine-year-old who was shot in the hip during a botched underworld shooting in July 2022 .
NSW Police Detective Superintendent Grant Taylor said at the time it would have been “very difficult” to mistake the pajamas-clad girl for an adult man.
The little girl now relies on walls and furniture to help her move around and is too traumatized by the incident to leave her room.
According to an admitted statement of facts, she suffered long-term nerve damage, walked with a permanent limp and had to rely on an ileostomy bag.
His siblings were unable to go on a school field trip to Luna Park after their classmates expressed fears they would be shot if they came.
Rizk, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy and agreement to murder, was hired to be the driver of two stolen cars with fake plates arranged for the hit.
The two men drove away from the Connells Point house to nearby Oatley, where they dumped the BMW sedan and set it on fire.
They then walked towards the second car, a red Mini Cooper, which had been parked on Annette Street several days earlier.
However, when Rizk turned the key, the car did not start.
One resident said he saw the two men “moving around frantically opening the doors of a Mini Cooper” as they desperately tried to start the car.
As police sirens were heard in the distance, the men made the ill-advised decision to swim to safety and ran to the edge of the nearby St. George River.
However, about two hours after the accident, officers at the scene of the burned BMW sedan spotted Rizk wet and covered in sand.
Police body camera footage revealed the moment the whole plan fell apart.
About two hours after the crash, officers at the scene of the torched BMW sedan in Oatley, in Sydney’s south, spotted Rizk. He was identified at the scene and arrested (photo)
“There was a shooting in the area,” the officer was told to Rizk.
“You’re nearby, you’re all wet, you’re covered in sand, we suspect you might be involved, do you understand that? »
He was later identified by officers from State Crime Command’s Raptor Squad.
“Do you know this guy?” », asks a squad officer.
“Yes, he’s one of them, he’s 100 percent one of them,” the officer replied.
During a subsequent interview with police, Rizk learned that a little girl had been shot.
“Well, it’s a piece of shit, whoever the shooter was,” he replied.
Rizk later claimed he had visited the area to go laps with Olympic swimmer Ian Thorpe.
“And where… does he live?” ” the officer asked, to which Rizk replied, “China.”
In phone calls monitored by police, Rizk expressed regret for what he told officers the night of his arrest.
“My new life, my new life is going to be in prison… That’s it, I’m done, I’m here for the rest of my life, that’s it,” he told his girlfriend from prison.
The day after the shooting, an Oatley resident spotted a man crawling in the bushes and reported him to police.
After a subsequent search, the police found a pistol, bullets, a balaclava and a telephone.
Rizk pleaded guilty to conspiracy and agreement to commit murder and causing grievous bodily harm and is scheduled to be sentenced Nov. 24.
His alleged associate has pleaded not guilty to shooting with intent to kill.
