A man who police say had organised crime associations was fatally shot on Friday night in what appears to be a targeted attack near a nightlife hotspot in Melbourne’s south.
Emergency services were alerted on Friday night at about 11.40pm that multiple shots had been fired at a man walking down Almeida Crescent, a side street off South Yarra’s Chapel Street.
Victoria police said it was too early in the investigation to say whether the 53-year-old man’s alleged association with organisation crime was linked to the attack.
Police said they were making inquiries as to whether a torched car found in Rowville – about a half an hour’s drive from the incident – was linked to the shooting.
“This wasn’t a random attack, we believe this was targeted,” a spokesperson for Victoria police said at a press conference on Saturday morning.
“There are no concerns [for] the general community or people living in and around this area, or anyone coming in into the area.”
The man, who is yet to be formally identified, had been at the gym before the incident, police said. At the time of the shooting, he was accompanied by another man who police said was not injured in the attack and had so far not been forthcoming with information.
The man who was shot sustained life-threatening injuries during the attack and later died in hospital.
The shooting comes as Sydney police are struggling to contain an escalating gang war. Last week, five people were shot in five days.
The recent spate of shootings in Sydney started over a month ago when the prominent underworld figure Alen Moradian was shot dead at the end of June in broad daylight while sitting in his car at Bondi Junction.
In early July, a 20-year-old man was shot in the chest and a 33-year-old man was hit in the buttocks in a targeted attack inside a hairdresser on Sydney’s Marrickville Road.
Two cars were set alight in neighbouring suburbs shortly after the shootings.
Sydney police have established Taskforce Magnus to investigate the crimes, with 70 detectives and 30 plain-clothed officers investigating links between the shootings and a string of other serious crimes including kidnappings believed to relate to drug supply.
Victoria police are appealing to anyone who was in the area the time of the South Yarra shooting who has information to come forward.
