Police say a 25-year-old Victorian man who was stabbed and stomped to death in an Adelaide CBD street early on Monday morning was fleeing a nearby knife-fight between rival groups.
A 17-year-old boy from the Melbourne suburb of Meadow Heights was charged with murder last night, after police tracked him to Adelaide Airport, where he was arrested.
Police allege the boy — who cannot be identified because of his age — was attempting to fly back to Victoria using a false name.
He was arrested along with three other Victorian males — an 18-year-old man, a 16-year-old boy from St Albans and a 21-year-old man from Werribee — who were charged with aggravated affray.
The Adelaide Youth Court was told on Tuesday that the 17-year-old had refused to appear via videolink, instead rolling over in his bed in detention and covering his head.
He was remanded in custody, and no bail application was made on his behalf.
Police allege he was one of three males who were seen pursuing the victim onto North Terrace in Adelaide's west end about 2am on Anzac Day, after a large fight.
"The victim was chased down by three males, fatally stabbed and stomped [on]," Detective Superintendent Des Bray said on Tuesday.
"Two of the people were actively involved in his murder, and the other person stood back and watched.
"We know the identity of two of those males. One of them is in custody and has been charged with murder.
The 25-year-old victim has been variously described as being from the Melbourne suburb of Richmond, and of no fixed address, and is understood to have divided his time between South Australia and Victoria.
The 16-year-old Victorian boy who was stopped at the airport made no application for bail and has been remanded in detention to face court again next week.
Four men from Adelaide's north and another 16-year-old boy of no fixed address were charged with weapons offences after police allegedly found two knives, a machete and cash in a vehicle they stopped on the corner of Pulteney and Wakefield streets a few hours after the alleged murder.
CCTV used to piece together events
Superintendent Bray said police had been able to create a timeline of the night of the stabbing, mostly with the help of CCTV.
But he said the sequence of events was set in motion days earlier, when several people arrived in Adelaide from interstate.
"On Friday evening, on two separate flights — one arriving from Sydney and one from Melbourne — six African males arrived [in Adelaide] and were collected by local gang members and taken to an undisclosed location," he said.
"On Saturday, the person who we believe was responsible for the murder, together with some other gang members booked into the Mantra hotel on Hindmarsh Square."
On Monday morning, Superintendent Bray said police received reports of two robberies believed to have been carried out by the same suspects.
Police said that, minutes later, the victim was seen running along North Terrace after leaving the laneway, and was then fatally stabbed.
Police name groups involved
A taskforce called Operation Meld was established last July to investigate ongoing violent incidents in Adelaide's northern suburbs.
Police had been reluctant to label the groups as "gangs" but Superintendent Bray identified them as such on Tuesday afternoon.
Police said the violence was mainly contained between the rival gangs.
"This is not dissimilar to what we've seen with our bikie gangs over time," Superintendent Bray said.
"We've had lots of street gangs in the late 2000s … the majority of those no longer exist, so gangs will come and go and a strong and consistent law enforcement action is part of it.
"It's important that everybody remembers that these are violent young criminals who, on this occasion, happen to be African but we've had this sort of offending with lots of other different people and these young criminals are not truly representative of the wider African community."
A total of 17 people allegedly connected with the two rival groups were arrested in the wake of the stabbing — but not all of them in connection with the fight or the alleged murder.
Superintendent Bray said the people arrested so far ranged in age from their teens to 25 years old.
"Some of the suspects had been wanted for other offences, most have been charged for weapons-related offence," he said.
Two were arrested for aggravated assault causing harm over a large fight at the Nairobi Affair Lounge, also known as the Producers Bar, on Grenfell Street last month.
