Man shot dead on Rossmore Avenue in Sydney’s south-west

A boxing coach has been shot dead in an ambush in Sydney’s south-west, in what police believe is another targeted attack linked to organised crime.

Louis Meehan, 32, was killed behind his boxing gym in the carpark of the Punchbowl Community Centre on Wednesday evening after being sprayed by gunfire by an assailant inside a silver Lexus sedan.

Police rushed to the carpark, administering urgent CPR to Meehan, while two onlookers knelt to pray for the man before he was pronounced dead.

Meehan was walking alone when he was shot beside a white sedan at the entry of the carpark, which was full at the time of the attack.

Onlookers, including multiple school students, watched on from the edge of the carpark as paramedics worked to save him.

Meehan has posed online wearing merchandise linked to the Alameddine crime gang. This includes clothing from Proper 60, a Merrylands-based group associated with the family, and Ready 4 War, the name of the Alameddine network’s drug-trafficking operation.

Campsie Police Area Commander Dean Johnstone confirmed Meehan was known to police.

“This is a callous act,” he said. “We do not believe that other persons were at risk. However, obviously, in a public place like this, those actions cannot be tolerated.”

Police had no information to suggest that Meehan’s life was in immediate danger, or an underworld contract had been taken out for his murder, according to Johnstone.

Meehan, the son of former Australian boxing great Kali Meehan, played for the Sydney Roosters’ National Youth Competition alongside brother Willis in 2013 before turning to full-time boxing coaching.

He was a senior coach on the ‘Meehan Boxing Team’, a family-run business that conducted personal training sessions and boxing classes. His brothers are also involved in the business.

The Punchbowl Community Centre carpark sits one block behind The Boulevarde, a busy high street adjacent to Punchbowl train station.

It is on the same road as St Jerome’s Catholic Primary School and St Jerome’s Catholic Church.

The street has been roped off and blocked by marked and unmarked cars. Police have expanded the crime scene as they work to gather evidence.

The Punchbowl shooting comes two days after the Minns government announced a suite of measures targeting an outbreak of gangland violence on Sydney’s streets.

The measures were flagged in response to last week’s mistaken identity killings of university student Marco Tapia, 23, and business owner Joshua Macdonald, 40, in the city’s west.

The reforms promised tighter targeting of offshore kingpins and local middle men orchestrating violent attacks and tougher penalties for teenagers carrying out gang-related shootings and firebombings.

It marked the NSW government’s third significant crackdown on organised crime in two years and came days after the police minister denied authorities had lost control of escalating violence.

Conflict between the Alameddine crime family and Coconut Cartel has sparked an escalation in underworld violence in recent years, as the warring organised crime syndicates jostle for control of Sydney’s lucrative drug trade.

Powerbrokers for both of the groups are living overseas, where they’re believed to be orchestrating criminal activities in Sydney while out of reach of Australian police.

Asked on Monday if community fears were justified following last week’s shootings, Premier Chris Minns said: “We do think there’s a problem.”

“There [is] a disregard for human life I haven’t really seen before,” he said. “It’s been a regrettable and horrible part of life in Sydney.”

It followed Police Minister Yasmin Catley’s insistence last week that the violence was not “out of control”.

Opposition Leader Kellie Sloane referenced Catley’s comments following the Punchbowl shooting on Wednesday, writing on X: “Another deadly shooting in Sydney – the 3rd in a week. This time in front of a community centre. Do you still have things under control police minister Catley?”

Tapia was killed last Tuesday morning after a group of home invaders stormed his family’s Glen Alpine home before executing him in his bed.

He was in his third year of a biomedical engineering degree at the University of Technology Sydney, and his only brush with the law was through a minor traffic offence.

Macdonald was shot dead in the doorway of a Merrylands West duplex home the next day. CCTV footage outside the home showed a grey Audi sedan stopping outside the house before an assassin fires shots from the back passenger seat.

Macdonald, who didn’t live at the home, was arriving at the duplex with a resident and two children moments before he was shot. The owners of the Bruce Street residence are known to police and linked to organised crime.

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