Khaled Kahwaji, 29, from Rhodes, was spoken to by police at Petersham around 12:30pm on Friday - six hours later his body was found on Wilbur St, Greenacre.
Detective Inspector Russell Oxford said Kahwaji - who has not been formally identified - was reportedly sighted in Wilbur St where he died, on Thursday.
Police had been called to the area regarding reports of a man carrying a firearm.
When Kahwaji spotted officers in the street, he ran away - however D/Insp Oxford said police were not entirely sure whether it was Kahwaji who was armed.
"The real mystery for us is what caused this man to arrive at Wilbur street - he's arrived in Wilbur street and he lives in Rhodes," D/Insp Oxford said.
"We need to determine why he was there."
D/Insp Oxford said a number of lines of inquiry were continuing, including links to a shooting a crime family matriarch last week in Auburn, the organised crime group Brothers For Life, and a murder in 2010 over which he was charged.Kahwaji was charged with the murder of Saba Kairouz in August 2010.
He was named on social media last night about 7pm though police asked it be withheld from publication for operational reasons.
Investigators are focusing their main line of inquiry to include a retaliation attack in relation to that murder, but are also investigating links with the shooting of a crime family matriarch on Auburn road at Auburn last Saturday.
The victim in that case, revealed by this newspaper earlier this week, was the aunt of Supermax inmate Bassam Hamzy, the founder of the organised crime group Brothers For Life.
Police later said they were bracing for an escalation in violence over the attack, which saw her shot four times in the legs at her front door.
Witnesses living on Wilbur St at Greenacre said they tried to help Kahwaji as he lay on the road just after being shot in the back of the head about 6pm last night.
Relatives grieve at the crime scene where a man was shot in Greenacre. Picture: Piper Jeremy
After approximately one hour they then stormed the premises, though no arrests were made.
"We were trying to talk to him and just saying 'can you hear us'," a neighbour, who heard about five shots, told The Sunday Telegraph.
"The first thing police asked him was 'do you know who did this'."
Two search warrants were carried out by heavily armed officers later in the evening on the same street.
Police, the Homicide Squad and about seven riot squad officers have today returned to the scene, blocking off Wilbur st to door knock homes and conduct a line search for further evidence.
Police described the killing of Kahwaji, believed to be 30 years old, as a targeted attack.
He was shot a number of times, including the back of the head, while sitting in a Silver Mazda 3 on leafy Wilbur Lane about 6.15pm.
His body was found lying next to the car which had bullet holes in the driver's side door and about another three in the windscreen.
"This is not a random incident. This person has been targeted and it's certainly not something that is random," Bankstown police Superintendent Dave Eardley said.
"It's certainly an act that's quite vicious and callous."
In a shocking scene now regularly confronting residents of Sydney's western and southwestern suburbs, the street was shut down as more than 30 police scoured the area for evidence.
Forensic detectives and investigators from the Homicide Squad were also called in to assess the scene.
Local residents returning from work were unable to enter their homes as the street was blocked off for about 100m.
Police cars and ambulance vans also clogged the street.
Police at the scene of the shooting in Greenacre / Pic: Bill Hearne
Police said it was too soon to say if the killing was related to motorcycle gangs but Supt Eardley said investigators were "not ruling anything out".
Yesterday's killing marks the 35th shooting in NSW this year - more than three a week - with 10 this month alone.
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