Sydney shooting victim Amy Hazouri final phone call to her mother: Lametta Fadlallah
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The mother of an ‘innocent’ hairdresser murdered in a gangland hit has revealed the last words her daughter ever said to her.
Amy Hazouri, 39, was gunned down in a hail of bullets while sitting in the back of a Toyota 4WD in Panania, south-west Sydney on Saturday alongside her client Lametta Fadlallah.
Police believe Ms Hazouri was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.
She had gone to Ms Fadlallah’s home to blow-dry her client’s hair before the two were about to head out for an engagement party at a nearby Lebanese restaurant.
But the pair did not make it out of Ms Fadlallah’s driveway.
Her mother Elham Meliji, said she spoke to her beloved daughter shortly before the tragic incident.
‘Mama I’m with a client, let me finish dyeing her hair. I’ll finish the client and call you,’ Ms Hazouri said in her final words to her mother, who lives in Austria, the ABC reported.
Amy Hazouri, 39, was gunned down in a hail of bullets while sitting in the back of a Toyota 4WD in Panania, south-west Sydney on Saturday alongside her client Lametta Fadlallah
Ms Meliji, who spoke twice a day to her daughter, told her she wanted to talk about plans for Ms Hazouri’s engagement party which was set to take place in Lebanon, where the family is from, in November.
It would have been the first time Ms Meliji had seen her daughter since 2016.
Ms Hazouri met her fiancé Ahmed Ghalayni at the start of the Covid pandemic when she was stuck in Lebanon for nine months and had already picked her wedding dress out.
The talented hairstylist moved to Australia to become the sole breadwinner for her family back in Lebanon which is currently struggling with an economic crisis triggering food, fuel and medicine shortages.
Mr Ghalayni was so devastated by the shock news he couldn’t move his hands or mouth and had to be taken to hospital.
Ms Meliji said her daughter often felt lonely in Sydney and was excited to visit family back home to make up for lost time.
Amy Hazouri (left) is pictured with her mother Elham Meliji (centre) in 2016. They had not seen each other since then
Amy Hazouri was also shot dead in the attack, while her 16-year-old TikTok star friend sat in the front seat of the car
A fundraiser for the family has raised $22,000 to cover the cost of bringing Ms Hazouri’s remains to Lebanon for burial.
But Ms Meliji said they need help from the Australian government to get her home quicker, as having a burial as soon as possible is very important in Arabic culture.
She implored the government to speed up the process of releasing her daughter’s body, saying her heart was burning.
Mr Ghalayni said having her body brought back will bring some closure for her loved ones.
‘At least we’ll get to see her and I’ll get to feel her,’ he said.
A burnt-out vehicle, thought to be a getaway car, is parked inside a cordoned-off area as police investigate the fatal shooting of two women in the suburb of Revesby, Sydney, Australia, 14 August 2022
The car was found burnt out in the nearby suburb of Panania shortly after the shooting
Ms Hazouri and Ms Fadlallah were in the back of a car when at least a dozen bullets were fired through the window.
A 16-year-old girl and 20-year-old man was also inside the vehicle, in the front seats, but managed to escape.
‘My daughter was taken in innocence. My daughter was taken unjustly … mistakenly, and I’m hoping justice will take its course,’ Ms Meliji said.
She added that she has more faith that justice would be in western countries than in Arab countries.
Ms Meliji said he daughter was a compassionate person who didn’t like violence or blood.
Lametta Fadlallah (pictured) is believed to have been the target in a shooting that killed her and her friend, who is said to have been collateral damage in the gangland hit
Hairdresser Amy Hazouri (pictured) was also killed during the latest Sydney gangland attack
A friend of Ms Fadlallah’s told Daily Mail Australia that she spent her final days looking over her shoulder.
‘I think she knew it was coming,’ the friend said.
Ms Fadlallah was no stranger to the rules of the underworld, having been involved in in criminal activity – either through marriage or in her own right – for many decades.
She was well aware of the price of speaking to police.
‘As it was put to me, the killers don’t think they have broken any rules to stay away from women and family because that’s not why she was targeted. She is dead because she snitched,’ a friend said.
‘She didn’t deserve to die… She was a good woman and did everything for everyone, but they’re the rules. In their eyes, that’s something worthy of being murdered for.’
Ms Fadlallah rented a tidy dark brick duplex (pictured) in the Sydney suburb of Revesby
In the months before she was shot dead beside Ms Hazouri, Ms Fadlallah installed multiple high-tech security cameras at her Revesby home.
Those very cameras likely captured the moment she was ambushed as they made their way to an engagement party.
Gunmen fired at least a dozen bullets into the backseat of the car they were riding in, killing Ms Fadlallah instantly. Ms Hazouri later died from her injuries.
A teenage TikTok star with more than 100,000 followers and her boyfriend were the survivors in the front seat and are said to be deeply traumatised.