A high-profile criminal defence lawyer has been shot outside a home in Sydney in what police believe is a targeted attack.
Mahmoud Abbas, 31, was outside his home and about to get into his car when he was approached by an unknown person and shot, Det Superintendent Adam Johnson said.
“It is a brazen, clearly targeted shooting,” Johnson told reporters on Wednesday.
“The motive and the reasoning behind it at this stage is too early to speculate.”
Emergency services were called to a home on Narelle Crescent in the south-west Sydney suburb of Greenacre at about 10.25am on Wednesday after reports of shots being fired.
They found Abbas still conscious but suffering gunshot wounds.
“We now have one, if not more offenders on the run,” Johnson said.
Separately, three people were taken to hospital after a shooting in Greenacre on Sunday. Police said they believed it was a “targeted attack”.
Abbas Jacobs Lawyers, where Mahmoud Abbas is a practising criminal lawyer, have not responded to Guardian Australia’s request for comment.
Abbas has represented several high-profile clients, including members of an alleged Islamic State-inspired terror cell charged with plotting to destroy Sydney landmarks and the controversial former Auburn deputy mayor Salim Mehajer.
He has also represented Sydney underworld figures, including handyman Ahmed Jaghbir in his trial over being an accessory to the murder of Kemel Barakat.
Abbas began his career working as a junior lawyer for the Sydney criminal lawyer Brett Galloway.
Officers from Bankstown police station and the state’s criminal squads are investigating.
