Youssef Assoum was found shot and stabbed in a residential street just metres from Bankstown Hospital in Sydney's south-west.
Now, eight years later, NSW Police have charged Comanchero bikie kingpin Tarek Zahed with his murder.
Just months ago it was Zahed who was left clinging to life after an assassination attempt that killed his brother.
In December 2014, a doctor leaving the hospital on his way to his car discovered Assoum.
Images from the time showed blood splattered across the road.
He performed CPR, but despite his best efforts, 29-year-old Assoum later died at Liverpool Hospital with stab wounds to his head and a gunshot wound to his leg.
For years, police have searched for his killer.
In that time, Sydney has been rocked by a spate of brazen and public executions.
In the past two years, more than a dozen people have lost their lives to gangland warfare, compelling the state's top cop to defend the force's response.
NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb said, "this is not a 'CSI' one-hour program," adding, "these [investigations] are complex and these take time."
Eight years after Assoum's death, police have confirmed his murder was related to organised crime and have revealed the alleged killer's identity as Comanchero's national sergeant-at-arms, Mr Zahed.
On Sunday afternoon, police officers dramatically arrested the 42-year-old on a busy road in Sydney's eastern suburbs after firing non-lethal shots at a luxury car he was travelling in.
Mr Zahed was dragged out of the vehicle, handcuffed, and taken to a nearby station where he was charged with murder and kidnap in company with intent to commit a serious indictable offence.
"He was given the reception in Sydney that was deserved," Superintendent Danny Doherty said.
"OK he was battered and bruised and put on the footpath, but that was because he was non-compliant."
Superintendent Doherty said Mr Zahed had returned from Melbourne to Sydney to attend a function in Bondi.
Last year he had moved to Melbourne to escape police attention in his home state, where he is bound by a Serious Crime Prevention Order that requires him to notify authorities when he returns to NSW.
When questioned, Superintendent Doherty would not confirm whether police will allege if Mr Zahed pulled the trigger or what the motivation for the murder was.
He said Sunday's arrest followed intel from the NSW Crime Commission and Victoria Police's Echo Taskforce "culminated in sufficient information and evidence to conduct a high-risk arrest at Edgecliff".
In May, Mr Zahed narrowly survived an assassination attempt after he was shot 10 times out the front of an Auburn gym.
His brother, Omar, 39, died at the scene after being hit with a hail of bullets.
Superintendent Doherty said he doesn't believe the attempt on Mr Zahed's life was linked to the 2014 murder.
He added the investigation is ongoing and, "this is the first arrest of many, I'm hoping."
Lawyers for the accused killer told a Sydney court they will apply for Mr Zahed's bail next week when the matter is heard.
