"Very genuine guy" ... a worker at the victim's property. Photo: Wolter Peeters
MONEY is one of many motives police will look at as they investigate the brazen daytime execution of a young father who was building his ''dream home'' for his wife and children.
Ali Hachem Eid, 38, was shot dead at his half-finished mansion in Punchbowl on Tuesday afternoon.
Mohammed Hanouf, 34, an electrician who was also working on the Lumeah Avenue home, was shot five times in the back of his head, legs and hands as he tried to run away and was in a stable condition in hospital on Wednesday night.
Neither men had a criminal record. Police are baffled by the shooting.
Neighbours said Mr Eid, a tiler and father of four young children, had spared no expense in building the two-storey home on a corner block purchased by him and his wife, Sanaa El Arja, last year.
He had recently contracted a worker to fit a $60,000 kitchen and had told others that everything in the house would be the ''best of the best''.
A worker who was on the property minutes before two masked gunmen fired up to eight shots and then fled, said the devoted father and husband was a ''very genuine guy''.
''He kept talking about making the house safe for the kids,'' he said. ''It was going to be a beautiful house. It was his dream home for his family.''
Yet Mr Eid had confided to a neighbour that he was waiting to be approved for a loan and was ''way over budget''.
''He was panicked but he was proud of his house,'' said the neighbour, who did not want his named published in fear of retaliation. ''He was worried that he needed to finish the house as soon as possible and kept saying he just needed to buy more time or he would be in danger.''
A relative of Mr Eid's described him as a ''very genuine, very honest gentleman'' who had been building the home for more than a year.
Police sources said he was a ''cleanskin'' and had absolutely no criminal links.
Detective Superintendent Michael Willing from the Homicide Squad said Mr Eid's business and financial links would be investigated.
''We are keeping an open mind,'' he said.
''We believe that this was a planned and targeted attack but at this stage we don't know why these men were targeted.''
He said it was possible that Mr Hanouf had been unintentionally caught in the crossfire.
After the shooting, Mr Hanouf stumbled out to the front of the property and said ''they shot us'' in Arabic to a neighbour.
Detectives had spoken to him in St George Hospital.
The two gunmen, who were seen running from the scene in black clothing and balaclavas, have not been found.
Detective Superintendent Willing said they may have fled in a waiting car.
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