Sam Ibrahim ...  had been arguing with a relative who was also at his mother's house.

Sam Ibrahim ... had been arguing with a relative who was also at his mother's house.

SAM IBRAHIM was shot because of a family dispute with relatives, a source close to the family says.

The man rejected reports that linked the shooting to rival motorcycle gangs.

"There's no war between the Comanchero and the Ibrahim family. There's no war between the Bandidos and the Ibrahim family,'' he said.

Mr Ibrahim had been on holidays with his family, and had only returned to Sydney to visit his sick mother on Thursday.

"How could anyone know he was there?" the source, who is close to one of the Ibrahim brothers, said.

The man, who said he had spent most of Friday with Mr Ibrahim in hospital, said Mr Ibrahim had been arguing with some relatives "all week". He said the argument was not over a woman or an affair.

"It's a family issue,'' he said.

Mr Ibrahim had been arguing with a relative who was also at his mother's house. "Sam told him to tell his brother to behave," the source said.

Soon after the relative left, Mr Ibrahim had received a phone call from the relative's brother asking him to come outside.

First a Porsche four-wheel-drive drove past, then a silver Mercedes with tinted windows circled the block before doing a U-turn, the source said.

The Mercedes drove past again. In it were four people with black balaclavas. Shots were fired by the men in the front and rear passenger seats before the car drove off.

A family friend pulled down Mr Ibrahim's mother, who was screaming.

One bullet hit Mr Ibrahim in the buttock and emerged at the front of his leg and a second hit his mobile phone and grazed his other leg, the man said.

He said Mr Ibrahim would not speak to the police about the shooting.

"There's not going to be any payback,'' he said.

He also rejected suggestions the shooting was linked to a shooting at the house of Mr Ibrahim's sister Armani Stelio in November. Another drive-by shooting on Tuesday at the Doonside home of a senior member of the bikie group Notorious also had "nothing to do with the Ibrahims", he said.

Members of the Bandidos had visited Mr Ibrahim in hospital, the man said.