Full-metal jacket: bullet found
Fadi Ibrahim and his girlfriend, Shayda Bastani-Rad, were shot in his Lamborghini.
Fadi Ibrahim and his girlfriend, Shayda Bastani-Rad, were shot in his Lamborghini. Photo: Bill Edwards
Dylan Welch Police Reporter
July 31, 2009
IT IS not something a mother expects to find when unfolding her son’s laundry.
Fadi Ibrahim’s mother was stunned after she collected from police the velvet dinner jacket he was wearing when he was shot last month, and one of the bullets he was shot with fell out of the right sleeve.
The discovery has left the Ibrahim family furious – the jacket had been with police for two months and had undergone several detailed forensic procedures. The Ibrahims say the overlooked bullet shows police are not interested in finding Fadi’s attacker.
Fadi, 35, was shot five times by a man carrying a silenced pistol outside his Castle Cove home on June 5. The bullet his mother found was used and separated from its casing. The family’s lawyer, Brett Galloway, said: ‘‘She unfolded the jacket and one of the projectiles used to shoot Fadi fell out.’’
He said the eldest Ibrahim brother, Hassan ‘‘Sam’’ Ibrahim, then called an officer at the Middle Eastern organised crime squad involved in the case and asked: ‘‘Are you investigating this case or what?’’
Sam explained his mother’s bizarre find, and the officer replied: ‘‘Stay right there – we’re coming’’.
Police arrived at her Merrylands home a short time later and took the bullet.
The jacket would have been examined by forensic specialists to see if there was any DNA or other substances that might point to who shot Fadi.
In a remarkable lapse, that specialist missed the used bullet, which had come to rest in the sleeve after piercing Fadi’s arm. A police spokeswoman said: ‘‘Following forensic analysis, clothing exhibits were returned by police to a 35-year-old man on 28 July this year.’’
Police said they were called by the Ibrahims yesterday and had ‘‘seized the projectile for further forensic analysis’’.