Hoda Darwiche, 32, was shot in the leg when a masked gunman opened fire on Sydney crime figure Walid "Wally" Ahmad, who was seated at the same at a cafe as Ms Darwiche at Bankstown Central Shopping Centre just before midday on Friday.

Ahmad, 41, died at the shopping centre, while Ms Darwiche and another man, identified as Nael Halid, an associate of Ahmad, was also wounded. The shooter then fled in a white Mercedes that was later discovered burnt out in nearby Greenacre.

Ms Darwiche had stopped at the cafe for a coffee before a planned visit to the gym when the gunman opened fire, according to News Corp Australia. She remains in Liverpool Hospital in a stable condition.

On Friday in the hours after the shooting, she reportedly posted a photo on her Instagram account of her two children, aged 12 and eight.

"When I look at them smiling and happy like this I'll forget everything happening," she wrote, News Corp Australia reported. Ms Darwiche's Instagram is now set to private.

Police on the weekend confirmed that Ms Darwiche was an "innocent bystander" and was seated at a separate table to the other shooting victims at the Rickard Road shopping centre.

"She is believed to not be linked in any way to those involved in the shooting," police said.

The gunman remains on the run, with police directing their search into Victoria on the weekend after the discovery of a crashed, abandoned car that may have been used in the escape.

As a prominent figure in Sydney's underworld, Ahmad had been on the police radar for many years, and was the subject of at least one extortion investigation and a murder probe.

Fairfax Media understands Ahmad had stood over several smash repair firms around Bankstown and demanded that a certain percentage of crash scene vehicles be funnelled to his Condell Park business for repairs.

In 2005, he was jailed over the fatal shooting of Mayez Dany three years earlier.