Family pay price of Sydney man's murder

A sheik has told those gathered for the funeral of a Sydney man who was shot dead in a park that he died because "someone wanted to be a bad boy".

Someone wanted to "prove a point" when they fired a bullet into 22-year-old Hedi Ayoub in a quiet, suburban park in Sydney's west.

But it has been his wife and family who have paid the price.

"Their lives have been changed for life because someone wanted to be a bad boy and prove a point," Sheik Mohammad Hoblos told Mr Ayoub's burial service on Thursday.

What was worse, he said, was people glorified that life and loved that image.

Mr Ayoub was shot on Monday afternoon in a Punchbowl park in broad daylight, metres from a childrens' playground.

The 22-year-old, who was known to police particularly for the people he associated with, had met his attackers at the suburban park but it is not clear why the meeting took place, or why he was killed.

Police are searching for three men seen running away as Mr Ayoub lay dying under a tree.

On Thursday hundreds of people gathered at Lakemba mosque and later at a cemetery to bid farewell to him.

Mr Ayoub had been a competitive bodybuilder before opening a body supplements store, which closed months ago, in Greenacre.

Sheik Hoblos gave a stirring speech, reflecting on the situation as becoming all too common.

"And you know what the worse thing is? My heart is slowly getting used to the idea," he said in his speech, which was uploaded on Facebook.

"So my brothers please you are here and you are watching, what changes are you going to make when you go home?"

As he stood before Mr Ayoub's grave he quoted a line from 90s rap song Gangsta's Paradise: "Why are we so blind to see that the ones we hurt are you and me?"

He then reminded the hundreds of men gathered in the wake of Mr Ayoub's murder, "there are no gangsters in paradise".

"...twenty-two-years-old built like a tank... one dollar brought him to the ground," Sheik Hoblos said.

"This is un-Islamic. There are no gangsters in Jannah my brothers let me give you the news now..."


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Source: AAP


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