After the gunshot on Monday at around 7 p.m., Yusuf Nazlioglu is believed to be in critical condition in Westmead Hospital.
The shooting is the most recent in a succession of gang-related crimes that have occurred in Sydney over the past two years as rival gangs battle for control of the city and settle scores.
As police surrounded the Rhodes Central building on Monday night, it is believed that he was shot many times on Walker Street in Rhodes.
The structure has apartments, a shopping center, and a parking garage in the basement.
With tape erected around a set of elevators and a local fast food restaurant, police could be seen assembling at one of the lobby entries.
After Hawi, the former leader of the Comenchero bikie gang, was shot and killed outside a Rockdale Fitness First club in Sydney’s south in 2018, Nazlioglu was charged with murder.
Although a jury found Ahmad Doudar, a 40-year-old furniture mover, not guilty, he was sentenced to four and a half years in prison.
After admitting to being an after-the-fact accessory to Hawi’s murder, father-of-one Doudar received a sentence.
The court heard that Doudar’s involvement in the offence entailed his using a tow truck to retrieve a hidden silver Aurion with the intention of disposing of it together with other items.
When Mr. Doudar was sentenced, US District Judge Robert Allan Hulme stated, “(Mr. Doudar) planned to assist in disposing of the automobile in order to assist” in the murder.
After a week of deliberations, a jury ruled Jamal El-Jaidi, 32, the purported getaway driver, and Nazlioglu, 39, not guilty.
Doudar was not invited to testify at their trial despite having admitted to their role in the crime while entering a plea.
Murders like this “do not happen by chance… they require the collaboration of numerous persons,” the judge remarked in passing sentence on Doudar for being an accessory.
Doudar’s motivation is still a mystery. The judge stated, “For all I know, Mr. Doudar may have been motivated by one or more additional motives.”
At his sentencing hearing, Hawi’s wife, Carolina Gonzalez, sister, Zeinab, and parents, Ahmad and Nahdi, all read remarks.
Under “extremely emotional testimonies of the sorrow and sadness that have followed from the taking of their loved one in the most horrible of circumstances,” they described how their loved one was taken from them.
While Nazlioglu and El-Jaidi were let go, Doudar received a prison sentence with a three years and four months non-parole period.