A man who miraculously escaped death after being shot in the head and buried in the ground, later staggered into a petrol station covered in mud.
The Australian victim, aged 23, had been targeted by a professional “contract crew” of assassins who are suspected of carrying out two additional fatal strikes within the same week.
Shocking CCTV footage reveals the would-be murder victim, caked in dirt from his burial site, stumbling into a service station in Jimboomba, 50km south of Brisbane at approximately 5am on July 21 last year.
Despite arriving with a bullet embedded in his skull, the man pleaded with stunned staff not to contact emergency services.
A worker who assisted the injured man recalled: “he had severe facial injuries, including his eye socket”, reports Daily Star.
The unnamed employee went on to describe: “He came and asked for a taxi and I said, ‘Are you sure you don’t want an ambulance?’ But he said, ‘No please, no ambulance.'”.
CCTV footage shows the man collapsing before being rushed to hospital – despite his protests – where surgeons successfully extracted the bullet from his brain.
Homicide Squad Commander Detective Superintendent Joe Doueihi described the man’s survival as nothing short of a “miracle”.
“He was buried in a shallow grave,” Doueihi revealed. “Unbeknown to the offenders, who believed he was deceased, the male crawled out of the grave.”
The detective explained that the victim had been enticed across state boundaries by the criminal gang, “not knowing what their ulterior motive was”.
The day prior to the alleged shooting incident, a white Hyundai Getz was spotted on CCTV in New South Wales at around 5.30am. Four male passengers – one believed to be the victim – were seen in the footage, suggesting the man had been picked up.
“We will allege that this syndicate that’s responsible for these three offences are linked to a Victorian drug trafficking syndicate,” added Doueihi. “We do believe that this particular crew, or crews, were contracted to conduct these activities. We do not believe that they are offshore. We believe they are still within the country.”
He added: “But they are talking to us, to a certain extent. The investigation remained somewhat covert for a period of time in order to progress the investigation to where we are now.
“It wasn’t an appropriate time back in July last year to release this information. We are at a stage now where we’re happy to release the information.”
