The gunman, whose identity is unknown, is at large.

Emergency services were called to Bankstown Central Shopping Centre about 11.50am on Friday after reports of a shooting in the car park.

Police arrived to find two men and a woman with gunshot wounds; one of the men died at the scene.

News footage showed a body lying under a white sheet behind barriers just in front of the entrance to a building.

Sailina Nesendra was walking from the shopping centre to the car park when she heard gunshots.

Ms Nesendra said security guards were trying to revive the man.

"All I see is just blood all over their hands," she told reporters. 

Describing the shooting as "targeted", Detective Superintendent David Eardley, from the Bankstown Local Area Command, said police believed the gunman had accomplices.

"This isn't a random shooting. It was clearly targeted towards the man who died. 

"The information is this gunman did not act alone."

A white Mercedes, which police believe was used in connection with the shooting, was discovered abandoned and torched in a nearby street in Greenacre.

Superintendent Eardley would not comment on whether a 60-year-old man and a 31-year-old woman, who were also shot, were connected to the dead man.

Superintendent Eardley said police were also investigating links between the Bankstown shooting and a recent fatal shooting at a smash repairs business at nearby Condell Park.

"We're certainly not ruling out any links - we're looking at all opportunists and all avenues of investigation," he said.

Underworld sources have told Fairfax Media the man shot and killed was Walid "Wally" Ahmad, 41, a convicted killer and standover man.

Ahmad was wanted in relation to the Condell Park shooting.

A 40-year-old man has died after being critically injured in the shooting outside Bankstown Central shopping centre where two other people were shot in the legs, at about 11.45am on Friday.

"We're certainly not ruling out any links - we're looking at all opportunists and all avenues of investigation," Superintendent Dave Eardley said, when asked if the incident was linked to a recent shooting at Condell Park.

The survivors were treated for non-life-threatening gunshot wounds to their lower legs. NSW Ambulance paramedics wheeled them both on stretchers into waiting ambulances.

They are believed to have gone to Liverpool Hospital.

Their condition is not known but both were conscious when they left.

Eight shots are reported to have been fired.

Police have initiated a Strike Force to investigate and have urged anyone with information to contact Crime Stoppers. 

A spokeswoman for the shopping centre management said the shopping centre remained open and only the car park adjacent to the crime scene had been cordoned off by police.

"There was no request made by NSW Police to evacuate the shopping centre, or close the centre following the shooting," she said.

Traffic around the centre was reportedly in gridlock as cars tried to leave the area.

Rickard Road was closed in both directions and drivers were urged to avoid the area.

Some buses in the area were delayed. Buses were being diverted from the shopping centre, terminating instead at Bankstown station and Bankstown interchange.

"The best advice we are giving people is to stay away," a spokeswoman from the Transport Management Centre said.

Fatema Islam, a nurse at Bankstown Hospital, had just parked her car in the shopping centre car park when she heard two gun shots.

Initially she thought the sound was equipment falling inside the nearby Rebel Sports shop.

"Then one lady just came out screaming and crying, 'Gunshot, gunshot,' " she told reporters at the shopping centre.

Fearing for her safety she said she quickly ran inside the shopping centre, glancing behind her as she ran.

"When I looked back nothing was there, not even a car was moving."

Inside the shopping centre "everyone was scared", she said.

A Bankstown resident working at the shopping centre, who asked not to be named, told AAP that "police arrested the wrong people to start with".

He said a Mercedes was stopped and searched by police on the corner of Jacobs Street and Rickard Road, but police failed to find a weapon.

"It happened in front of us," he said. "They handcuffed the wrong person."

He said police found the right car, a black four-wheel-drive, at the rooftop car park near the gym.

Ahmad was linked to the A Team Smash Repairs shop that was the scene of a fatal shooting on April 9.

It is understood that Ahmad was at the shop on Ilma Street when shots were fired, and police were keen to question him in the days after.

Last week in Bankstown Local Court police dropped three charges against him for common assault, a weapons offence and breach of bail.

Ahmad was very well known to police for standover tactics, extortion and as a prominent figure in south-western Sydney's criminal milieu.

He was jailed in 2005 after fatally shooting Mayez Danny at Greenacre in 2002.

The former bouncer was working the door at Sam Ibrahim's Kings Cross nightclub when he refused entry to Mr Danny's nephew and broke his jaw in the process.

Ahmad later shot Mr Danny five times at a prearranged meeting at a Greenacre auto wreckers after an earlier truce between the two crumbled.

He was sentenced to a minimum of seven years jail for manslaughter and assault-related offences.

It is unclear what role Ahmad played in this month's Condell Park shooting, which ended with Safwan Charbaji, 32, killed.

It is understood a debt dispute was at the root of the confrontation, which erupted between two groups after about half an hour of arguing on the street.

Abdullah El Masri, 35, was also shot in the jaw but survived.

Three people were charged after the shooting with concealing a serious indictable offence.

A Sydney underworld figure gunned down at a suburban shopping centre was the subject of at least one extortion investigation and a murder probe.

Walid "Wally" Ahmad has been very well-known to police for years as a prominent figure in south-western Sydney's criminal milieu.

The 41-year-old, who is believed to be married with children, is widely known for stand over tactics, particularly in the automotive industry. 

It is understood at least one police local area command in western Sydney was investigating Ahmad for his role in an extortion racket. 

Industry sources have also told Fairfax Media that Ahmad stood over several smash repairs around the Bankstown area and demanded a certain number of cars taken from crash scenes be brought to his Condell Park business for repairs.

Although he is not named as the business owner of A Team Body Works, his strong association with the Ilma Street shop is well known.

Ahmad often boasted of not having his name tied to assets so he couldn't be pinned for anything, sources say. 

When he first muscled his way into the Condell Park industrial area a few years ago - after serving time in jail for manslaughter - he was spotted roaring down the street in a flash cars worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. 

It is a scene that has been repeated on a regular basis since. 

He was sentenced to at least seven years' jail in 2005 over the 2002 shooting death of Mayez Dany - also known as "long-haired Dany" - at a Greenacre wreckers.

Ahmad was working on the door of Hassan "Sam" Ibrahim's nightclub DCM in Kings Cross when he refused entry to Mr Dany's nephew. He broke his jaw in the process. 

Under an invite from Mr Ibrahim, Mr Dany went to Ahmad's Greenacre wreckers and was shot in a melee. 

His name was thrust into the media spotlight for the first time in several years this month after a fatal shooting at the A Team Body Works.

Safwan Charbaji suffered fatal gun shot wounds on April 9 when a dispute - believed to be over a $100,000 debt - spiralled out of control.

Abdullah El Masri was shot in the jaw during the fight on the street but survived. 

Police were keen to catch up with Ahmad after the shooting but it is unclear whether they ever did interview him. 

Sources close to him deny his was ever "on the run".

Last week, police dropped three charges against Ahmad for common assault, possessing an expandable baton and breach of bail. 

smh.com.au