The moment that shook a vibrant Sydney suburb to its core

As a man knelt and quietly cried at a shrine erected where Amamuddin Sadar was stabbed to death in Merrylands last week, fellow mourners looked on solemnly.

The shrine is just outside Binas’s Mini Mart, an Indian grocer, and is covered in flowers and notes, with one saying, “You did not deserve this death but I know you are flying in heaven with God now.”

Sadar, 38, was killed during a stabbing spree on Merrylands Road last Tuesday, as he was heading to see his accountant.

Two others were stabbed during the attack: a 57-year-old woman and a 21-year-old man. Police arrested 25-year-old Setefano Mooniai Leaaetoa soon after, and he was charged with murder and attempted murder.

It was a random attack. Leaaetoa was unknown to the victims and had absconded from mental health treatment 10 days earlier while being transferred between hospitals.

The incident has shaken Merrylands and particularly the retail artery where it happened, a usually humming hub of activity reduced to a murmur.

Sadar was well-known among the many Afghan migrants who live in and around Merrylands, and was part of the interconnected network of migrant communities that fuel the usually boisterous energy in the area.

Merrylands is home to many newly arrived migrants, and is one of the most multicultural areas in the city, boasting substantial Lebanese, Afghan, Nepalese and Indian communities.

But the optimistic energy that normally bubbles below the surface felt absent in the quiet sadness that has followed Sadar’s alleged murder.

Zaki Sultani works at Kabul Boutique, his family shop selling traditional Afghan clothes and jewellery just a couple of blocks down from where the attack happened, and said the area feels less lively.

“People are scared,” he said, leaning over his counter. “And I’m also scared. You just never know who’s going to come into this shop any more, and do something crazy.”

Sultani, 18, arrived in Australia from Afghanistan four years ago, and said his family’s business had already felt a “dramatic” change since the stabbing.

“It’s been very bad for business. Normally, this shop is full any time of day, and now, nobody is here. It’s gone from here to zero,” he says, holding his hand above his head and pointing down.

Down Merrylands Road, at Karimian Carpets, worker Ahmed Jamali says he’s had to change his smoking habits in the aftermath of the attack.

“Now when we smoke outside, we are looking left and right, looking at everybody who walks past, wondering if it will happen again,” he added.

“If we could, we’d smoke inside now. But we can’t.”

Jamali’s family life has also been affected; his ex-wife no longer feels safe dropping off his 13-year-old daughter at his place of work.

“Our lives have all changed because of this, of course. Wouldn’t it have this impact anywhere else?”

Next door, at kitchen retailer Khorasan Shop, owner Abdul Azimi says he is considering buying a weapon to protect his business. He points to an enormous monitor hanging from the roof displaying his extensive CCTV network.

“It’s not enough,” he said. “I have security cameras in here running 24 hours a day, but you have to put something else in here to defend against someone attacking you.

“He had a knife at the end of the day. Cameras can’t help you there.”

Azimi, who sells a variety of kitchen and home goods tailored to the needs of the migrant communities, said he has seen a downturn in customers since the attack.

“The community out here is very afraid, you can see it if you walk around. We used to have so many customers, now look, there are only two in the shop,” he said.

“Sometimes I can go five to 10 minutes between customers. That has just never happened.”

Local state MP Julia Finn described people as feeling “unnerved” by the incident. Finn’s office is a short walk from where the attack began.

“People are unnerved. It’s scary because it is totally unprovoked, there wasn’t even a conversation. And everybody around there, all the businesses, are being affected.”

While the incident has shaken the community, and despite organised crime remaining present in the area, Finn said data showed Merrylands was overall safer than ever.

“People’s perception of Merrylands has been shaped by the organised crime issue, but the perception is not backed by crime statistics.

“To me, Merrylands seems safer than it was 30 years ago, when I worked here as an electorate officer. It might be different, but it feels safer,” Finn said.

The Sydney Morning Herald has opened a bureau in the heart of Parramatta. Email parramatta@smh.com.au with news tips.