The mother of a Hurstville teenager has cried as footage of her fatally wounded son collapsing to the street was shown in court.
Bassil Hijazi, 18, died after being shot in the chest and neck during a confrontation in a car park on Albyn Street in Bexley on July 29, 2013.
Dramatic CCTV aired on Tuesday during the Supreme Court trial of Jordan Gatt, the man accused of pulling the trigger, showed Hijazi running down the street before hitting the ground, laying there motionless.
Justice Monika Schmidt called a brief adjournment after Mr Hijazi’s visibly distressed mother, Hannah, cried in the back of the court in reaction to the video.
The CCTV, which begins about 9.50pm, was shown to the jury during the evidence of star prosecution witness George Borg, who has already pleaded guilty to his involvement in the murder.
Borg, who is serving at least 12 years and two months for the murder, said he was a close friend of Mr Gatt’s, who he regularly drove around Sydney to deal drugs.
Borg identified himself and Mr Gatt as being shown in the footage walking down an alleyway behind the Forest Road shopping strip, then walking back in the other direction.
A short time later several people can be seen running down the street, followed by the fatally hit Mr Hijazi.
Defence barrister Phillip Boulten SC told the jury the key issue in the case was deciding who shot Mr Hijazi.
“It was either George Borg or Joseph Gatt," Mr Boulten told the jury.
“George Borg pleaded guilty to murder,” Mr Boulten said, adding Borg planned the killing “without telling the accused that he was going to shoot him that night.”
In his opening address last week Crown Prosecutor Adrian Robertson said both Borg and Mr Gatt entered the car park armed at about 9.30pm, but only Mr Gatt fired his weapon.
Mr Boulten said his client denied he was armed during the confrontation.
“There was no plan at all between Mr Borg and the accused that a gun be fired. What happened, happened unilaterally,” he said.
The jury heard that Borg and Mr Gatt drove their Toyota Corolla hire car into the car park, where Mr Hijazi was sitting in a Mitsubishi Lancer with a small group of men.
John Terepo, a friend of Mr Hijazi’s, was one of the men the car when he was shot.
He told the court this week: "Two guys just put their hands up and started spraying the car. I just put my head down."
Borg said both he and Mr Gatt were armed as they exited the car but the jury was told his gun was unloaded.
"Joe said something along the lines of ’what’s going on boys?’" Borg said.
"It happened really quick. The shots started ringing out."
Borg said soon after Mr Gatt began firing he put his own gun back in his pocket.
Mr Gatt, 27, denies he was the one who shot Mr Hijazi, instead claiming he was oblivious to his friend’s plan to kill the teen.
Borg alleges that he was the one blind to Mr Gatt’s violent intentions.
In police surveillance tapes played in court, Borg is recorded telling a friend "I didn’t know he was going to do it" during a conversation on December 20, 2013.
"He should have said to me ’I’m going do this ... stay in the car.’
"I thought he was going to run over and pump the c---," Borg told the friend.
Crown prosecutor Adrian Robertson asked Borg what he meant.
"I remember thinking at the time: at worst, Joe’s going to run over and there’s going to be a fight," Borg said.
After the shooting Mr Gatt and Borg went back to Mr Gatt’s Wolli Creek apartment an they were captured on CCTV footage carrying a laundry basket of clothes.
The men were later seen in different clothing, the jury heard.
Months later, on October 28, a police surveillance device installed in Mr Gatt’s apartment showed him putting a gun down the front of his jeans
On November 2 police searched a removal truck at the apartment block, finding a Colt pistol with the DNA of Mr Gatt and his girlfriend on it, and a Beretta pistol with Borg’s and Mr Gatt’s DNA.
Mr Boulten said it wasn’t the gun used to shoot Mr Hijazi.
The trial continues.