Updated ,first published
A gunman has attempted to murder a father as the man picked up his teenage daughter from school in Sydney’s west.
Police were called shortly before 3pm on Tuesday after a man pointed a handgun towards a 44-year-old man sitting in a ute parked in a driveway at a school pick-up in Fairfield.
The target’s 15-year-old daughter was sitting in the ute at the time. Both got out of the car and ran.
Neither were injured, but police said in a statement that the pair were “distressed”. Officers are investigating whether the gun jammed.
“The only description provided of the man with the gun was that he was dressed in black, wearing a black balaclava,” the police statement read.
CCTV footage shows the pair fleeing down the quiet street, the father with his arm around his daughter, and the girl urging him to be careful.
Police are still trying to identify the gunman, but they believe the target was selected simply because he is related to organised crime figures.
There is no suggestion that the target is himself involved in organised crime.
Police were patrolling the school in numbers during the pick-up peak on Wednesday afternoon.
Multiple high-powered Highway Patrol units, general duties officers and police on motorbikes went up and down the road outside the front gates between 3pm and 4pm.
‘The man with the gun was was dressed in black, wearing a black balaclava.’
NSW Police
A police helicopter could also be seen flying overhead.
But parents learnt of the earlier attempted shooting when they pulled up to collect their children.
“I had no idea about that,” Giulio Buda said as he collected his year 7 son, Domenico.
“It’s a bit scary … a bit concerning,” he told this masthead.
Al Ioane questioned “what’s going on with this bloody world?” when he picked up his year 9 son, AJ.
“It makes my blood get hot,” he said.
Earlier on Tuesday, police made two arrests after the shooting of a funeral venue set to host the family of Lorenzo Lemalu – a Coconut Cartel gang leader shot dead in Vietnam.
Footage showed a gunman firing almost 30 bullets from a military-style assault rifle, believed to be a modified SKS, into the Punchbowl venue, which was empty at the time.
On Tuesday police arrested a 17-year-old boy, who cannot be named due to his age, and a 23-year-old named Ronald Donovan.
Officers seized an “assault rifle magazine” in the arrests, police said in a statement that made no mention of the weapon itself being recovered.
The two were charged with firing the weapon and participating in organised crime activity. Donovan was refused bail and will remain in custody until August.
The Coconut Cartel and its former allies, the Alameddine crime family, are involved in a long-running feud in Sydney’s west and abroad.
Lemalu’s assassination may have been ordered by a third gang following the cartel’s failure to keep a 400-kilogram methamphetamine importation from the hands of police.
Last year, police thwarted an alleged plot to execute a Sydney man outside his children’s daycare centre.
Police are appealing for anyone who witnessed the Fairfield incident, or who has relevant information or dashcam vision from the area about the time of the incident, to call Fairfield Police or Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
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Jack Gramenz is a breaking news reporter at The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via email.
