A brazen gunman has fired dozens of shots at a function centre where grieving family members were holding a memorial for slain Coconut Cartel leader Lorenzo Lemalu.
Footage filmed by an accomplice showed a hooded man in a SUV wielding an AK-47 as he fired up to 30 shots at Diamond Venues Punchbowl in Sydney’s south-west on Saturday afternoon.
‘This window right here cuz. Keep going cuz, keep going. Hold it. Hold it. You done? Let’s f**n go lad aha,’ his accomplice instructed the gunman, before the SUV sped off.
NSW Police were called to the function venue on Canterbury Road at 2.20pm, shortly after the incident. No injuries were reported.
Inside, a private family service was being held for Lemalu, 24, a senior leader of the notorious Coconut Cartel and former associate of the Alameddines.
An abandoned SUV was found engulfed in flames a short time later in the same suburb, 4km away in Gillian Place.
Detectives established crime scenes at both locations as an investigation was launched.
‘Initial inquiries indicate they are linked,’ a police spokesman told Daily Mail.
A hooded gunman opened fire at Diamond Venues Punchbowl on Saturday afternoon
The brazen ambush unfolded during a private family service for slain Coconut Cartel leader Lorenzo Lemalu
Photos of the cordoned-off function centre showed several windows peppered with bullet holes and spent casings strewn across the car park.
The brazen shooting in broad daylight shocked locals.
‘I was on the phone to my mate and pretty much told him, I think I just heard gunshots,’ one told Seven News.
Another added: ‘Obviously scary. I immediately was like to my mum, I think we should move houses.’
Lemalu’s body returned to Australia this week, a fortnight after the underworld figure was executed outside a restaurant in Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam.
Fellow Coconut Cartel associate Sam Sauni, 27, from Sydney’s south-west, was seriously injured but survived.
A flyer promoting Lemalu’s funeral and wake at Diamond Venues Punchbowl was shared online this week.
The funeral has since been relocated to Lakemba Mosque after function centre management expressed safety concerns.
Several windows of the function centre were peppered with bullet holes
Police remained at the cordoned off function centre on Saturday night
A funeral and burial for Lorenzo Lemalu will be held at Lakemba Mosque on Sunday
A heavy police presence is expected at Lemalu’s funeral and burial on Sunday.
It is understood a Polynesian tradition of staying with the body overnight during the wake was cancelled by police due to safety concerns, the Daily Telegraph reported.
Lemalu was a former member of Proper 60, a western Sydney-based gang linked to the Alameddines led by Ali Younes, aka Ay Huncho.
It is believed he fell out with the Alameddines some time after fleeing Australia four years ago and began directing the Coconut Cartel’s activities from South-East Asia.
The Coconut Cartel is a breakaway gang locked in an underworld crime feud with the Alameddines over control of the Sydney drug scene, sparking a series of firebombings and drive-by shootings across the city in recent months.
Two Samoan nationals have been charged in connection with Lemalu’s death in Vietnam.
Police allege the men were acting ‘under the direction of an individual abroad’.
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