Nine-year-old girl shot in her pyjamas marks disturbing depths of Sydney’s underworld war

A nine-year-old girl involved in a violent underworld shooting is now too scared to leave her bedroom after being shot in the hip by an alleged gunman.

The little girl wore her Dr. Seuss pajamas when Mahmoud Rizk and his alleged accomplice arrived at her home in Connells Point, in Sydney’s south, in a black BMW sedan just before 5pm on July 8, 2022.

As she and her two siblings helped their mother unload the Woolworth shopping bags, a series of bullets suddenly rang out, one of which hit the little girl in the hip.

As she lay bleeding on the ground, she asked, “Mommy, am I going to die?”

The alleged shooter was looking for a gang member of Brothers 4 Life, a criminal group founded by the feared Hamze family, the Daily telegram reports.

NSW Police still do not know who organized the planned shooting, which is considered one of the worst shootings in the history of Sydney’s gangland war.

NSW Police Inspector Grant Taylor said at the time it would have been “very difficult” to mistake the pajama-clad girl for an adult man.

The little girl now relies on walls and furniture to help her get around and is too traumatized by the incident to leave her bedroom.

According to a statement of agreed facts, she suffers from long-term nerve damage, walks with a permanent limp and relies on an ileostomy bag.

Her siblings were unable to go on a school field trip to Luna Park after their peers expressed fears that they would be shot at if they came.

Rizk, who has pleaded guilty to conspiracy and consent to murder, was hired as the driver of two stolen cars, complete with fake license plates, staged for the hit.

The pair sped from the Connells Point home to nearby Oatley, where they dumped the BMW sedan and set it on fire.

They then moved to the second car, a red Mini Cooper, which had been parked on Annette Street a few days earlier.

However, when Rizk turned the key, the car would not start.

A resident said they saw the pair ‘frantically walking around opening the doors of a Mini Cooper’ as they desperately tried to start the car.

As police sirens sounded in the distance, the men made the unwise decision to swim to safety and ran to the edge of the nearby St Georges River.

However, about two hours after the failed hit, officers at the scene of the burned-out BMW sedan saw Rizk wet and covered in sand.

Police bodycam footage has revealed the moment the whole plan fell apart.

“There have been shots in the area,” the officer is heard saying to Rizk.

“You’re close, you’re all wet, you’re covered in sand, we suspect you’re involved, do you understand?”

He was subsequently identified by officers from the State Crime Command’s Raptor Squad.

“Do you know this man?” a squad officer is asked.

“Yes, this is one, he is one hundred percent one,” the officer replied.

In a subsequent interview with police, Rizk was told that a little girl had been shot.

“Well, he’s a piece of shit, whoever the shooter is,” he replied.

Rizk later claimed he had visited the area to swim laps with Olympic swimmer Ian Thorpe.

“And where… does he live?” the officer asks, to which Rizk replied, “China.”

In police-monitored phone conversations, Rizk expressed regret about what he told officers the night of his arrest.

‘My new life, my new life will 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 saw a man crawling in the bushes and reported it to police.

After a subsequent search, officers found a gun, bullets, a balaclava and a telephone.

Rizk pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit murder and causing grievous bodily harm and will be sentenced on November 24.

His alleged associate pleaded not guilty to shooting with intent to murder.