The crime figure Mahmoud Brownie Ahmad was so embedded in Sydney's underworld that he was only going to end up in a body bag or back in jail, police say.
Ahmad, 39, was released from prison six months ago after serving five years for the manslaughter of gangland rival Safwan Charbaji in 2016.
Ahmad, known as a big player in Sydney crime, had a long list of enemies in the city and walked out of jail with a bounty on his head.
After a tip-off saved him from an imminent daylight hit in October, he left Australia to spend time in his native Lebanon.
He had left the country for the second time in fear of his life, but there wouldn't be a third.
Ahmad couldn't stay away from Sydney and was soon back among his regular associates despite the $1 million being offered to his prospective killers.
He is the second brother of Ahmad to have been shot down in the gangland battleground of south-west Sydney.
His life was always in danger, said Detective Superintendent Danny Doherty, NSW homicide squad boss.
He was going to end up in a slab in the morgue or he was going to end up in jail in a cell. At the time of his death, Ahmad was on parole for the manslaughter of Charbaji outside a Condell Park smash repairs business on April 9, 2016.
Two formerly friendly criminal groups had met to sort out a dispute over money but a shoot-off erupted, with Charbaji killed and another person shot in the face.
After the shooting, Ahmad fled to Lebanon but admitted to police in 2017 that he had fired a warning shot in the confrontation.
He said he picked up a gun from the ground and fired out of self-defence as a man pointed a weapon at him from inside a car holding Charbaji. Ahmad's shot flew over the vehicle.
A judge noted on Ahmad's sentencing that he bitterly regretted his role in the incident and that it was the time when it appeared that his life was going well, perhaps for the first time the court heard it was Ahmad's elder brother Walid Wally Ahmad who fired the fatal shots outside his auto shop.
The incident is believed to have sparked a series of tit-for-Tat murders, including Wally Ahmad's.
Three weeks after the shootout, a 40-year-old was murdered while sitting at a table outside Bankstown Central shopping centre.
Hamad Asaad, a man who thought he was linked to that hit, was executed outside his Georges Hall home in October 2016.
Later on, police revealed they didn't suspect Asaad in Wally Ahmad's death, and no-one was ever charged.
Kemel Blackie Barakat, a man with links to the Ahmads, died in March 2017 when masked hitmen stormed his Mortlake unit.
Later that month, Brownie Ahmad was arrested at Sydney Airport, having returned home for questioning over Charbaji's death.
He pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was safe in a prison cell for years, but his enemies were waiting.
The initial investigation into his murder was made more difficult because of the fact that many people wanted to harm Ahmad.
In recent times, it was revealed that Ahmad was locked in a bloody gang war with the Alameddine crime network.
It's believed that the Alameddines had planned to ambush Ahmad in October at Rushcutters Bay Park, but he was told to reconsider his visit.
As soon as last week Ahmad received more warnings from police that his life was in danger, advice he chose not to heed.