The 15-year-old came within arm’s reach of death when a masked gunman pulled the trigger.

A hitman has tried to execute a member of a rival family outside a Western Sydney school during the afternoon pick-up in the latest escalation of the city’s ruthless underworld conflict.

The target’s teenage daughter was within arm’s reach, and they only survived the ambush at Fairfield West because the gun apparently jammed.

At school pick-up time on Tuesday afternoon, a 44-year-old man had just collected his 15-year-old daughter from Westfield Sports High School when a stranger, dressed in black and wearing a balaclava, approached the pair and pointed a gun at the man.

When he pulled the trigger, the gun jammed. He then turned the weapon on the girl before fleeing the scene.

“You’d be frightened, wouldn’t you? With a gun,” one local said.

7NEWS has chosen not to identify the man over concerns for his safety. Police say he’s an innocent victim who just happens to be related to the notorious Alameddine crime family.

It was once an unspoken rule that children were off-limits for organised criminals, but that’s changed in recent years.

In 2021, bullets narrowly missed toddlers at a Prospect daycare centre. Last year, there was an attempted assassination as a man picked up his child from daycare in Revesby.

7NEWS has spoken to the father, who says he’s too shaken by the incident to speak publicly. However, he did meet with detectives this afternoon for several hours to give them a full account.

Police are still investigating why someone wanted him dead.

A dedicated team of detectives is working on the case, doorknocking in the area, interviewing potential witnesses and searching for security video which could hold vital clues as they try to work out who the gunman is and who he’s working for.

Police declined to speak on camera about the investigation.

SOURCE: https://7news.com.au/news/teen-in-firing-line-as-hitman-targets-father-after-school-pick-up-in-fairfield-west-sydney-c-22413372