‘I don’t know how someone can get away with it. It doesn’t make sense,’ Adrian Pacione’s sister Emily Pacione says

Furious relatives of a young Melbourne tradie who died in a mistaken identity shooting are fighting for justice and want the state to offer a million-dollar reward.

Shooting victim Adrian Pacione (right) with his family.

The family of a young tradie gunned down in an aggravated burglary has called on Victoria Police to post a $1m reward in the hope someone connected with the murder “finally does the right thing”.

Adrian Pacione was visiting a friend in Ella Court, Lalor in July 2020 for a pizza and movie night when three men tried to enter the unit.

They were unsuccessful, then shots from a high-powered handgun were fired through the front window.

A bullet struck the 20-year-old in the head as he sat in the loungeroom watching Clint Eastwood’s film Gran Torino.

Mr Pacione was shot while watching a movie at his friend’s house.

He died two days later.

The gang of three – Abdulla Hammoud, Tahmid Rahman and Adam Tiba – were charged with murder in October 2020, but one by one the charges were dropped or removed on appeal.

All three pleaded guilty to aggravated burglary and had their sentences reduced in plea deals.

Tiba – who the Office of Public Prosecutions originally argued was the shooter – was the last to be sentenced, in the Supreme Court last month, but walked free after receiving time served of 345 days.

“We’re so angry,” Adrian’s sister, Emily Pacione, told the Herald Sun.

“I don’t know how someone can get away with it. It doesn’t make sense. I just feel the courts are not on our side.”

The family has called on the state to offer a reward in the hope that new information brings justice.

Murder carries the highest reward in the state at $1m but the decision to offer one rests with a police committee.

A Victoria Police spokesman told the Herald Sun they would not discuss individual cases, but added: “Rewards send a clear message that we are ­determined to bring those ­responsible to justice. However, every case and therefore every strategy is different.”

Police said the investigation into Mr Pacione’s murder was “open and ongoing”.

The Pacione family says a substantial reward would ­motivate people to speak up.

“We pray for justice,” Ms ­Pacione said. “And we just hope that someone finally does the right thing.”

Adding to their grief, the family was silenced in the ­Supreme Court when Tiba’s lawyer successfully argued to have their victim impact statements deemed inadmissable.

“I miss his laughter, his charm, his smell, his voice,” Adrian’s father, Paul Pacione, had wanted to tell the judge.

“I sit in his bedroom and ­imagine his presence. No person had the right to take Adrian from me.”

Justice John Dixon said Tiba had shown remorse by pleading guilty and “achieved significant personal rehabilitation”.

But the family say they struggle to comprehend how any of the gang can be thought of as remorseful or rehabilitated while the killer’s identity ­remains a secret.

“I don’t understand why they can’t keep them in jail until they admit the truth,” Ms Pacione said.

Originally published as ‘I don’t know how someone can get away with it. It doesn’t make sense,’ Adrian Pacione’s sister Emily Pacione says