Police have shared shocking details surrounding an allegedly failed gangland hit of a man and his teenage daughter.
The 44-year-old was sitting in a ute with his 15-year-old daughter outside of a school on Hamilton Road in Fairfield West, southwest Sydney, when a gunman allegedly pointed a gun through the window about 3pm on June 9.
WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Teen charged over school pick-up murder attempt
Know the news with the 7NEWS app: Download today Arrow
Police said the gunman attempted to fire at the man but the gun jammed, giving the pair a chance to run away. The gunman then aimed at the teenage girl and tried to fire once more, only for it to jam again.
CCTV footage from nearby shows the father and daughter run for safety down a side street. The dad was later seen with his hands on his head speaking with police.
“If that gun had functioned as intended, it would have been a catastrophic outcome,” Detective Acting Superintendent Jason Smith said.
“We’d be talking about a murder instead of a shooting…”
David Kulitapa, 19, will front court accused of planning an allegedly failed gangland hit of a father and daughter earlier this year. Credit: NSW Police
Smith spoke to reporters on Thursday, a day after police arrested 19-year-old David Kulitapa at Sans Souci.
Police will allege Kulitapa was not the gunman but had instead done the preliminary work for the attack, which allegedly included using a device to track the man’s car for “at least a few days” according to Smith.
“He was (allegedly) involved in a range of preparatory acts, which included the staging of vehicles, physical surveillance, the use of tracking devices to monitor the movements of the victims,” Smith said.
He described the incident as “an extremely targeted and calculated attack”.
“It occurred in a busy street minutes before school pickup, this offender showed a complete disregard for the safety of the victims and anyone in the vicinity at the time.”
Kulitapa allegedly planned for a gunman to shoot at the pair, but the firearm jammed and gave them a chance to flee from the scene. Credit: 7NEWS
Alleged family ties to Sydney’s underworld
Smith said the alleged victims were targeted due to familial ties, but were not directly involved in Sydney’s underworld.
“We believe that the two victims were targeted simply because of a family association,” Smith said.
“They had not done anything to anyone to deserve to be a victim of this type of crime.”
Kulitapa was arrested during a traffic stop about about 1.25pm on Wednesday, about the same time that police raided a home in Cronulla and allegedly located and seized a knife, illicit drugs and electronic devices.
He has since been charged with two counts of attempted murder and single counts each of installing a tracking device without consent, directing activities of a criminal group, possessing a prohibited weapon and two drug offences.
Detective Acting Superintendent Jason Smith described the alleged attempted murder as ‘abhorrent’. Credit: 7NEWS
Smith said it was “likely” that he had been hired by offshore criminals to plan out the attack.
“The nature of this crime as a service type model is that it’s hard to sometimes connect these groups together,” he said.
“We will continue to investigate this until we identify every person involved in the offence and we will put them before the court.”
Kulitapa will appear before Sutherland Local Court on Thursday.
Detectives told the alleged victims about the arrest, but Smith said he was “not sure how you would ever get over something like this”.
“They are understandably still affected by the incident, particularly the young girl, and I think we would all understand that that’s quite normal,” he said.
“It was very obvious that the young lady in the car was a teenage girl and to pursue her and attempt to discharge a firearm at her is absolutely abhorrent.
“I can’t really think of anything worse in terms of depravity of a criminal to do that to a young woman and to put her through that.”
Wild moment woman found floating a day after falling off cruise ship
1 min read
Gangs paying children less than $200 to commit dangerous crimes
2 min read
