African community leader makes plea after St Kilda stabbing

A community leader says “kids are dropping like flies” in the streets of a major Australian city due to escalating gang violence.

A leader among Melbourne’s African community has issued an emotional plea over social media, calling for a cessation in youth violence, which claimed another young life over the weekend.

In a nine-minute video posted on Instagram, Hanad Hersi claims “our kids are dropping like flies,” adding “as a community, we need to start asking ourselves some real hard questions”.

On Sunday, 18-year-old Hashim Mohamed was killed in an alleged stabbing on the St Kilda foreshore.

Hashim Mohamed, 18, was killed in St Kilda on Sunday. Picture: Supplied

The teenager’s death has come amid a concerning escalation in knife crime in Melbourne, which this year has resulted in the deaths of 16-year-old Declan Cutler, who was stabbed and beaten to death allegedly by a large group in Coburg North in March, and the stabbing death of 23-year-old Alier Riak in the CBD, also in March.

“As a community, we need to ask ourselves some real hard questions around what the f*** is actually going on,” Mr Hersi says.

“What is happening to our young people? What is happening in our community? What is happening in our neighbourhoods? When did this level of violence become OK?

Community leader Hanad Hersi has said Melbourne’s streets are ‘full of blood’ in an emotional social media post. Picture: Hanad Hersi / Instagram

“Our young kids are dropping like flies every other week. The streets are full of blood. We’re talking about young kids.

“For what? Because someone’s talking s*** to you on social media? Because this guy said something about you? Or this guy’s from this postcode, or this suburb?”

St Kilda’s foreshore in the immediate aftermath of Hashim Mohamed’s alleged stabbing. Picture: 7News

On Wednesday morning, The Herald Sun reported that Mohamed was involved in a catastrophic car accident in September last year which killed four of his friends, a crash which was reportedly linked to an earlier altercation with another group in Tarneit in Melbourne.

No arrests have been made over Mohamed’s death, and a police investigation remains ongoing.

Originally published as African community leader makes plea after St Kilda stabbing