The nine-year-old girl shot dead in her pajamas marks the disturbing climax of Sydney’s underworld war

A nine-year-old girl caught up in a violent underworld shootout is now too scared to leave her bedroom after she was shot in the hip by a suspected gunman.

The little girl had her Dr. Seuss pajamas worn when Mahmoud Rizk and his alleged accomplice arrived in a black BMW sedan at their home in Connells Point, southern Sydney, shortly before 5pm on July 8, 2022.

As she and her two siblings helped their mother unload shopping bags from Woolworths, 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, “Mom, am I going to die?”

The suspected shooter had been looking for an associate of the Brothers 4 Life gang, a criminal group founded by the feared Hamze family Daily Telegraph Reports.

NSW Police still do not know who organized the planned attack, considered one of the worst shootings in the history of Sydney’s gang war.

Pictured is police bodycam footage from the Connells Point home of a nine-year-old who was shot in the hip in a botched underworld shooting in July 2022

NSW Police Detective Commissioner Grant Taylor said at the time it was “very difficult” to mistake the pajama-clad girl for an adult man.

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

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

Her siblings were unable to attend a school trip to Luna Park because their classmates feared they would be shot at if they went.

Rizk, who has pleaded guilty to conspiracy and consent to murder, was hired as the driver of two stolen cars with fake license plates that were organized for the attack.

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

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

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

A local resident said he saw the couple “running around frantically and opening the doors of a Mini Cooper” as they desperately tried to start the car.

When police sirens were heard in the distance, the men made the unwise decision to swim to safety and ran to the bank of the nearby St. Georges River.

But about two hours after the mistake, officers found Rizk at the scene of the burned-out BMW sedan, wet and covered in sand.

Police bodycam footage has revealed the moment the entire plan failed.

About two hours after the botched accident, officers discovered Rizk at the scene of the burnt-out BMW sedan in Oatley, Sydney’s south. He was identified at the scene and arrested (picture)

“There has been a shooting in the area,” the officer can be heard telling Rizk.

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

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

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

“Yes, that’s one of them, he’s 100 percent one of them,” the officer replied.

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

“Well, he’s an asshole, whoever the shooter is,” he replied.

Rizk later claimed he was in the area to do laps with Olympic swimmer Ian Thorpe.

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

In telephone conversations monitored by police, Rizk expressed regret for what he said to 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 spotted a man crawling in the bushes and reported it to police.

During a subsequent search, officers found a pistol, bullets, a balaclava and a telephone.

Rizk pleaded guilty to conspiracy and consent to commit murder and aggravated assault and is scheduled to be sentenced on November 24.

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