A Sydney crime figure has been shot dead outside a house in Earlwood in Sydney's south overnight in what police say was a targeted shooting.
Pasquale Barbaro, 35, died on the footpath on Larkhall Avenue about 9.40pm on Monday after he was shot multiple times, including at least once to the head.
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Sydney crime figure shot dead in Earlwood
Pasquale Barbaro has been shot dead outside a house in Earlwood in Sydney's south. Courtesy: ABC News 24.
Police and paramedics arrived in Larkhall Avenue within minutes, but Mr Barbaro, who had been living with his girlfriend in Harrington Park in Sydney's south-west, could not be saved.
The Earlwood home belongs to Sydney construction figure George Alex. It is understood that Mr Barbaro had been invited over for dinner and had been seen dropping into the house, where Mr Alex lives with his mother, from time to time.
Mr Barbaro, whose grandfather and cousin were both killed in separate gangland hits in Brisbane and Melbourne, had survived a shooting in the Sydney suburb of Leichhardt just last year, when a gunman fired at least six shots at him. All of the shots missed.
But on Monday night his luck ran out, when at least two men dressed in hooded jumpers ambushed him as he sat in a car on Larkhall Avenue, neighbours said.
Neighbours emerged from their homes after hearing up to seven gunshots ring out.
Gabriella Pintos said she saw the victim sitting in a car on the street outside her neighbour's home at about 8pm.
"We heard the gunshots but I wasn't sure what it was, but (my boyfriend) knew," she said.
"So he ran out the back and two guys with hoods, they shot (the victim) in the car. There was another maybe four gunshots.
"A couple of minutes later there was someone screaming outside and everyone started to come out, people (onto) the street.
"We heard this guy going 'Open the f**king door, open the door', so he was probably asking for help but no one would open the door.
"He (the victim) must have just dragged himself to the (ground)."
Ms Pintos said she noticed cars parked unusually, against the normal flow of traffic, just before the shooting.
"We saw people in the car and we thought 'Oh why are they in the car' and the other car was facing the opposite way," she said.
While Ms Pintos heard four gunshots, other people in the street heard seven, she said.
Police set up a crime scene on the street on Monday night and detectives from the Ashfield Local Area Command and the State Crime Command's Homicide Squad examined the area.
Less than 45 minutes after the shooting, police were called to Goddard Park in Concord to reports that a car was on fire.
Fire and Rescue NSW crews extinguished the blaze and police set up a crime scene. Police believe the burnt-out vehicle, an Audi Q7, may have been involved in the shooting at Earlwood.
No one has been arrested over the shooting.
The Earlwood shooting follows the fatal shooting of crime figure Hamad Assaad outside his house in Georges Hall last month.
Mr Assaad was getting into a vehicle to leave his house with a 12-year-old relative when a black Audi pulled up outside the home and two people dressed in black emerged and opened fire at him.
The shooters then fled in the waiting car, which was found three days later burnt out next to a park at Birrong.
Police believed Mr Assaad was a suspect in the non-fatal shooting of Mr Barbaro in Leichhardt.
In that shooting on November 9 last year, a gunman walked up to Mr Barbaro as he stood outside a business and fired six shots at him. All of the shots missed Mr Barbaro, who ran towards Parramatta Road, while the gunman fled in a blue Commodore.
Mr Barbarao's grandfather and cousin - who were both also named Pasquale - were also killed in separate shootings.
His grandfather was shot dead in Brisbane in 1990, while his cousin was killed alongside Melbourne crime figure Jason Moran in 2003 as they watched a children's football training session.