The head of the NSW Police unit investigating organised crime networks denies it has lost control of Sydney's streets, following two suspected mistaken identity shooting deaths in as many days.
The brazen murder of an underworld figure's suspected business associate possibly marks the sixth innocent victim of the city's sprawling gangland war in the past 18 months.
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Illegal firearms in focus
Commissioner Lanyon has been asked about the role of illegal firearms in organised crime.
"Each and every day, as an organisation, we are focusing on those who want to have illegal firearms, those that should not have access to firearms," he says.
"We're taking those firearms off the street."
It's been put to the ministers and the commissioner that organised crime is out of control in NSW.
Commissioner Lanyon reiterates that police are targeting these networks seriously.
"We will put every resource that we need to into this," he says.
"We have demonstrated, over and over again, that we can suppress the type of violence we're seeing at the moment."
"But I think we need to be real to say that what we are seeing at the moment is not the act of a genuine human."
"That disregard for human life – to shoot at people that are innocent or they're not even certain are people they're in a contest with – shows that they don't care about that."
Commissioner Lanyon says police are still working to determine the motive behind the recent shootings.
"I think we've been fairly clear from the start that we believe the large majority of these organised crime offences are being orchestrated from overseas," he said.
"But we know that there are people onshore who are facilitating and putting together the groups that are doing it."
We are now hearing from Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon.
He says NSW Police will increase its presence on the streets.
"Whilst we have 150 dedicated resources at the moment, I will increase the number of proactive resources we have," he said.
"Those highly visible police, [will] provide additional reassurance to the public."
Yasmin Catley says the state government has "resourced police with everything they have asked for".
"If the police need or ask for us to do more, we will do it without hesitation," she says.
She described the violent acts by organised crime as "despicable".
Prue Car is up first, and she reiterates that violence "will not be tolerated in the state of NSW".
She says organised crime networks are "recruiting children" to commit violent acts.
"We have been doing everything possible to bring a stop to this," she says.
NSW Police Minister Mal Lanyon will address the media following two recent fatal shootings in Glen Alpine and Merrylands West.
He will be joined by acting NSW Premier Prue Car and NSW Minister for Police and Counter-terrorism Yasmin Catley.
Follow for live updates from the media conference
Police believed the man in his 40s was "likely" ambushed after picking up children from a nearby school in Merrylands West.
Police sources have told the ABC said it was unclear exactly why he was at the property and although he did not have a criminal history, investigations were continuing into his connections.
Fatally shot in broad daylight at a home with two children inside, he is the 41st murder attributed to underworld violence since shootings began in 2020 over the city's drug trade.
"Tragically, that [mistaken identity] is a possibility that the wrong person has been shot by these offenders," Superintendent Simon Glasser told reporters on Wednesday afternoon.
The victim's associate is "very well known to police" and detectives believe the shooting stems from feuding organised crime groups.
NSW Opposition Leader Kellie Sloane on Wednesday said the criminal activity was "frightening" people.
"Whether it's a young man, a student that's sleeping in his bed at night, whether it is a grandfather who's kidnapped and murdered, whether it is someone in the line of fire in a shop in Sydney's south-west, whether it's someone dropping their kids off at school: this is out of control," Ms Sloane said.
Head of Taskforce Falcon, set up last year to combat violent crime and criminal networks in Sydney, Detective Superintendent Jason Box, denied police had lost control of Sydney's streets.
"There's a lot I can't discuss, obviously, but we are out there and making a multitude of arrests and, you know, we're targeting the right people and we're doing absolutely everything that we can."
Underworld figures boasting online
The Merrylands West death marks another tragic chapter in the tit-for-tat violence that has been plaguing Sydney for years and continues a disturbing pattern of civilians caught in the crossfire.
Just a day earlier, university student Marco Tapia died after masked men stormed his Glen Alpine home and shot him dead.
In the wake of Mr Tapia's death and hours before the Merrylands West attack, NSW Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon said the taking of "innocent life" was "completely unacceptable".
Underworld fugitive Iziah Utai was quick to take to social media to gloat that the attackers: "popped the wrong person, didn't even get the right house".
Iziah Utai's self-proclaimed "Coconut Cartel" is openly feuding with the Alameddine crime family, and police believe the two gangs are responsible for a recent surge in violence.
Detective Superintendent Box said underworld figures who moved offshore and were contracting young people to carry out the killings believed they had "no fear" of being apprehended.
He said posting "probably exaggerates the situation", making it "more visual".
"They just want to nominate and put out to the community that they're this prime entity, that they're in charge and they're stronger than the other one that they're in conflict with."
Clumsiness and death by association
The mistakes from bungling hit-men over the last year, police alleged, range from wrong addresses, similar names, appearance or death by association.
Gilbert Shino died in a hail of bullets leaving a Forest Lodge pub in August 2025 in the company of a "DLASTHR" associate aware of threats to his life.
Beloved entrepreneur Luke Manassa, 21, was allegedly stabbed to death by two teenagers after being mistaken for an in-law involved in the current organised crime conflict.
Similarly, police have made clear that plumber John Versace was anything but a gangster when he was gunned down at his family home in May 2025.
Others like Bankstown mother Thi Kim Tran April last year have been targeted due to their relationships.
Ms Tran was taken, stripped naked in the street and shot in the head by what police allege are the underlings of a Vietnamese crime boss attempting to lure her husband out of hiding.
In February, two men were charged over the alleged kidnapping murder of 85-year-old Sydney man Chris Baghsarian in a case of mistaken identity, with the intended abduction target understood to be a man living nearby.
Several people remain before the courts on that matter.
So worrying is the state of the city's criminal milieu that Premier Chris Minns cancelled some of his plans while on a trade mission in India to receive a briefing on the latest shootings.
Police Minister Yasmin Catley, at the same press conference, detailed the model being used by crime networks in the city.
"Bringing in people who are just happy to commit a crime without understanding the consequences, and here we've seen again, allegedly, that we have somebody who is [targeted] from mis-identification," she said.
Assistant Commissioner Scott Cook has previously told the ABC Sydney's gangland scene has entered a new era of "disorganised crime" with underworld figures, who are often offshore, putting contracts out for murder and intimidation on the open market.
The jobs are increasingly being accepted by inexperienced young people with devastating and unintended consequences.
