Distressing footage has emerged of the final moments of a man who was gunned down in a ‘brazen’ attack.
As his life slipped away, David Khou’s family and neighbours desperately performed CPR on him before emergency services arrived, but he could not be saved.
Khou, 31, was gunned down outside his home in front of young children in Sutherland St, Canley Heights in Sydney‘s south-west just before 6.50pm on Sunday.
On Monday, detectives revealed the 31-year-old had links to Asian crime gangs and was a known target for underworld rivals.
After being shot several times while sitting in the passenger side of a car, Khou collapsed in a neighbour’s driveway as his mother and other locals frantically tried to stop the bleeding.
‘He was losing a lot of blood, but it was too much for us to handle,’ a neighbour told Nine News.
Another added: ‘I heard the bang, bang, bang about three times. I saw blood and I saw the guns, so that means it’s serious.’
The brutal killing happened in front of 10 children, with a shocked dad saying his ‘kids shouldn’t have to go through something like that’.
As his life slipped away, David Khou’s family and neighbours desperately performed CPR on him (pictured) before the emergency services arrived, but he could not be saved
On Monday, detectives revealed Khou (pictured on the ground) had links to Asian crime gangs and was a known target for underworld rivals
Detective Superintendent Danny Doherty branded the fatal shooting as brazen and unacceptable.
‘It’s a very sad, tragic situation despite what his history may have been or despite what his links are,’ he said.
‘It’s terrible for his family.’
He also revealed that Khou had links to Asian organised crime syndicates and was involved in Sydney’s illegal drug trade.
‘People don’t always lead the high life and have the bling, but there is consequences if you’re going to be involving an organised crime network,’ Det Supt Doherty said.
‘And they end up dead on a street in Sydney.’
A short time after the shooting, the suspected getaway car, a white Audi sedan, was set alight and destroyed at a park in nearby Wakeley.
‘I didn’t get too close because (of the mini-explosions coming from the car),’ one resident said.
‘And I was a bit scared, so I didn’t want to get any closer.’
Paramedics (pictured) treated David Khou, 31, for gunshot wounds at the scene but he was unable to be revived
Police described the shooting as a targeted attack (pictured, police at the scene)
Police remained at the scene at the shooting on Monday, where detectives went door to door to speak to potential witnesses about what they saw and heard.
Khou’s car was also taken away for forensic testing.
A concerned resident said he was ‘scared, especially when it’s not something that I would personally expect’.
The suspected gunman is still on the run on Monday night, despite a second getaway car was found in nearby Bossley Park earlier in the day.
Police executed a search warrant at a nearby residence on Monday morning as part of Strike Force Loughrea, which was established by the State Crime Command’s Homicide Squad with detectives from Fairfield City Police.
The 33-year-old man has been charged with being an accessory after the fact to murder
He will spend the night in custody to appear in Parramatta Local Court on Tuesday.
The suspected getaway car, a white Audi sedan (pictured), was set alight and destroyed in nearby Wakeley a short time later
Acting superintendent Jason Pietruszka said the shooting was a ‘targeted attack’.
‘This is not a random shooting,’ he said.
‘A person unknown has approached from the road, gone up to the driver-side window and has fired a number of shots into the window.’
The Canley Heights killing comes just over a month after Comanchero associate Nadal Acherkouk was shot dead in the carpark of a busy petrol station.
Police were called to Baptist Street in the inner city suburb of Surry Hills after gunshots were reported just before 8pm on Friday, November 22.
Police found Acherkouk, 31, near the carpark of a BP service station on the corner of Crown and Cleveland Streets.
The killers were wearing Batman-style capes as they ran towards him and sprayed him with bullets.
Acherkouk had links to underworld organisations in Sydney and was known to police at the time of his death.
In August, an underworld figure known as the ‘Angel of Death’ was shot dead in a hail of bullets in western Sydney, as police admitted there were ‘too many suspects and too many motives’ for the gangland hit.
Tarek Ayoub, 29, was peppered with up to seven bullets on Harold Street in Parramatta at around 3.30am on August 26.
A manhunt was launched for at least two gunmen who allegedly fled the scene in a stolen Audi sedan before setting it alight on a street around 4km from the crime scene at about 3.45am.
Witnesses saw them run from the burning car before fleeing in a white SUV.
Det Supt Doherty said Ayoub was visiting an associate when he was shot a ‘large number of times’ in the car park.
He said Ayoub was a known underworld associate with an extensive criminal background and his demise came as ‘no surprise’ to detectives because he ‘lived and died by the sword’.
