Melbourne’s knife violence and the teen gangs believed to be behind the crimes
The terrifying and ongoing knife crimes on the streets of Melbourne are the result of a perfect storm – and it’s feared more bloodshed could be on the way. SPECIAL REPORT
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Social media, Covid and the rise of drill rap.
The converging of a perfect storm has played a scary part in the ongoing knife crimes on the streets of Melbourne – and it’s feared more could be on the way.
In 2020 the stabbing deaths of Solomone Taufeulungaki, 15, Thomas Tran, 20 and Machar Kot, 21, in separate youth brawls in the CBD and suburbs brought the issue into the national spotlight.
Victorian Police launched Operation Alliance in September 2020 in a bid to dismantle youth gangs. It led to a string of major busts and a renewed focus.
A year later Deputy Commissioner Rick Nugent conceded gang rivalries accounted for a significant amount of the violence, with knives considered the “weapon of choice”.
“There have been large numbers of gang homicides, stabbings particularly. A lot of rival gang violence occurs,” Mr Nugent said.
“It’s tribalistic. The gangs end up as rivals for no reason and what will start as some angst will grow from each payback that occurs – and it escalates.”
In July 2022 Sen-Sgt David Cox of the southern metro crime team said there were 105 arrests of 67 serious and violent offenders in the first six months the year.
He warned the 138 on a gang persons of interest register that “they’ve got nowhere to hide”.
“We’re watching that group like hawks. We’ve got a greater line of sight than ever on these youths,” Sen-Sgt Cox said at the time.
“ … Our focus has got to be on making the kids make better choices.”
On December 22, 2022 another sorry chapter was added to the city’s youth gang scourge as five teenage boys were charged over an alleged gang stabbing at a shopping centre in Melbourne’s west which left a 19-year-old man fighting for his life.
Police were called to Watergardens shopping centre in Taylors Lakes around 7pm on Wednesday to reports a male had been stabbed.
Police confirmed a 14-year-old boy had been charged with intentionally causing serious injury and affray.
>> FULL LIST OF MELBOURNE’S YOUTH GANG KNIFE CRIMES BELOW
WHO ARE THE GANGS
MELBOURNE’S HISTORY
Violent brawls and terrifying assaults among youth gangs are, sadly, nothing new for Melbourne.
Suburban gangs have long terrorised the region.
In the late 1960s, groups of working-class teenagers called Sharpies or Sharps prowled the streets.
They were characterised by their distinct fashion with some members having conny-top haircuts, Staggers jeans and chisel-toe shoes.
From 1970 to 1980, the second wave of Sharpies, sometimes referred to as ‘Skinheads’, became prominent, following tough rock’n’roll bands including The Angels and AC/DC.
Meanwhile in the 1980s and 1990s, Oakleigh Wogs consisted mostly of Greek youths who lived and went to school in the area.
Then there was 3174.
The postcode for Noble Park where the gang was from, 3174 was made up of mostly Latino youth back in the late ’80s and early ’90s.
And the exploits of teenage gangs like the Broady Boys from Broadmeadows have made headlines since the 1970s.
They were known as one of the most violent gangs in Melbourne and would organise fights with rival groups at shopping centres and outside railway stations.
They made a resurgence in the early 2000s, consisting mostly of Turkish and Lebanese teenagers.
The Dandy and Broady Turks consisted of members with Turkish backgrounds and these gangs were rife in the ’90s and early 2000s.
The Sandy Boys, who were prominent in the ’80s and early ’90s, would meet and hang out at Southland shopping centre and then run amok at surrounding train stations.
FULL LIST OF FORMER VIC YOUTH GANGS
COVID’S IMPACT
In March 2022 youth leaders expressed fear Covid may have played a part in the surge of gangs in Melbourne as young people lacking connection turn to violence.
Veteran youth worker and founder of the Les Twentyman Foundation, Les Twentyman, said the Covid pandemic had meant there had been a growing rate of young people disassociated from society.
“The primary driver is vulnerability. When kids are left vulnerable and disconnected from family and society, they are most at risk of turning to anti-social behaviour,” he said.
“Gangs prey on vulnerable young people, offering them a sense of protection and, at times, what can seem like a sense of family.
“They have been cast out of society, so they have no respect for society’s rules.”
Safety forums, like the one in Wyndham in August 2022, also helped raise awareness – though there remained concerns some youth felt “untouchable”.
One man, who said he represented centre management at a shopping centre in Wyndham Vale and another in Tarneit, spoke about an ongoing issue of youths bringing knives into the centres.
“A 16-year-old girl pulled out an eight inch kitchen knife and threatened one of my security guards,” he said.
“She was back at the centre the following day saying obscene things to my security guard, that she was untouchable, so that was a concern.”
SOCIAL MEDIA
Social media remains the primary channel for communication among youth gangs, with Instagram and Snapchat used to organise street fights, post videos of the violence and recruit.
Gang members also use social media to brag about their weapons and post photos waving guns and knives.
Queensland Police Detective Superintendent Brendan Smith said in July 2022 that chasing likes on social media was preventing young people across Australia from understanding the “consequences of their behaviour”.
“We talk about knife crime and how serious that is – it’s once centimetre between life and death really,” Det Supt Smith said.
“The mindset of ‘look at me we’re the best’ really has been driven by social media.”
In 2021 one Victorian mother, who asked not to be named, said her son had seen Snapchat and Instagram messages from the rival gangs taunting each other.
“They always organise fights through social media, these gangs fight to claim their territory, but it’s so stupid because it’s over petty stuff,” the mother said.
In 2020 the Sunday Herald Sun found dozens of Instagram accounts featuring teens waving guns, knives and other weapons.
The images were shared widely by youths connected to the Instagram accounts, who openly applauded the brazen behaviour.
It had previously been reported that there were several websites selling large knives, swords and even tasers with express shipping to various locations across Melbourne.
One item, a jungle combat knife for $28, had been bought by more than 1000 people in recent months.
There were also several “fight club” social media pages, where young teens including girls upload sickening footage of fights, assaults and phone thefts to boast about them.
A mum of a former gang member, from Melbourne’s southeast, in August 2022 spoke of her 16-year-old son being approached.
“Social media has a big influence on these gangs, they post videos of themselves with weapons and rap music to show that they’re part of that ‘gangster scene’,” she said.
RISE OF DRILL RAP
Drill rap has played a part in the ongoing youth crime plague.
Victoria’s most notorious youth gang members are being influenced by overseas drill rap culture, with shocking footage showing teens brandishing weapons in music videos filmed in Melbourne’s inner suburbs.
The Herald Sun in August 2022 revealed youth gang members are filming drill rap music videos at some of Melbourne’s busiest train stations, in vacant carparks and even quiet suburban streets, with young teens singing gritty and violent lyrics while holding guns, knives and money.
Drill rap music originated in Chicago in the late 2000s, rising to popularity in the UK in 2014.
Footage shows members from a youth gang understood to be from Melbourne’s southeast rapping in the back seat of a car, while brandishing what appears to be a real firearm and a bullet.
Other videos show the members rapping late at night outside Berwick station and in quiet suburban streets, with some dressed like gangsters wearing designer clothing and holding knives.
Criminal psychologist Tim Watson-Munro said in October 2021 youth gangs filming drill rap music videos appeared to be a “new and emerging trend”.
“It’s certainly a developing trend and I understand why they do it. The thing about social media, it gives them a voice,” he said.
“They’re using the power of social media including TikTok and Instagram reels to gain notoriety, more followers and influence.”
Bond University associate professor of criminology and former Queensland police detective Terry Goldsworthy said rap music had always had a stigma of “gangster” culture attached to it.
“They’re doing this for a sense of belonging and excitement of that gang culture where they go out and do something unlawful and take a risk,” he said.
HISTORY OF CRIMES
March 2022
Basketball player Alier Riak was stabbed to death in March 2022, leading to six men being charged.
The charges, including murder, violent disorder, affray and commit indictable offence while on bail, relate to an attack on Mr Riak, a 23-year-old from Western Australia, who was set upon in Docklands in the early hours of Sunday, March 13.
His 26-year-old brother Kuol Riak was also seriously injured.
Police and paramedics were called to Bourke St, near Harbour Esplanade, following reports of a brawl between a number of young men about 3.20am.
The brothers were both taken to hospital, Alier Riak succumbing to his injuries a short time later.
Investigations remain ongoing.
September 2019
Maaka Hakiwai, 17, was stabbed to death just 50 metres from his home at Kings Park in Melbourne’s north-west.
Joshua Horton, who savagely knifed the teen, was jailed for a crime that started because of a basketball cap.
Horton, 20, was on July 2, 2021 found guilty of manslaughter and sentenced in Victoria’s Supreme Court to more than 13 years behind bars over the stabbing of Hakiwai, who died, and his brother Nathaniel Hakiwai, who survived.
The brothers had been on the way to the gym when they were both attacked at a bus stop by Horton, who stabbed Maaka so savagely that his internal organs were exposed.
Nathaniel, then 18, was seriously injured after being stabbed through the thigh.
Maaka died in hospital. He had celebrated his birthday just days earlier.
Justice Andrew Tinney called Horton’s actions “unprovoked, cowardly, brutal and entirely senseless” after the incident started over a Philadelphia 76ers basketball cap that Nathaniel was wearing.
Horton could be up for parole in eight years.
June 2022
A young Melbourne man drove a knife into the heart of a rival after hearing he had called him a “snitch”.
Marco Deng, then 22, became angered when told by associates that Machar Kot, 21, had made the snide remarks.
On June 22, 2020, he armed himself with the knife and set out to track down Mr Kot to set the record straight.
“I didn’t want to talk, just to fight, that’s it,” Deng later told police when arrested.
“Machar was saying I’m a bitch, I’m a snitch.”
Mr Kot was celebrating with friends at the Oaks Melbourne on Market Hotel when he got the message that Deng was downstairs and wanted to see him to buy Xanax.
The pair went into a lane to make the “drug deal” when Deng confronted him about the name-calling, punching him to the head about 5am.
Mr Kot fought back and after fleeing, Deng gave chase and despite the best efforts of Mr Kot’s friends to shield him, Deng lunged at his victim with a knife on the steps of the hotel in Market St in the CBD. The blade entered Mr Kot’s abdomen and pierced his heart.
Deng was in June 2022 on trial for murder, in Victoria’s Supreme Court. Jurors returned a guilty verdict.
Deng had told the court he did not intend to kill or seriously injure Mr Kot and should be found guilty of the lesser offence of manslaughter.
Deng was due to face a pre-sentencing hearing at a later date.
June 2022
A boy pleaded guilty to murdering a stranger when he was just 14, in an “extremely violent and persistent” stabbing attack in South Yarra, in September 2020.
The boy pursued victim Peter Kane, 40, on Malvern Rd, punching, kicking and stabbing him as he tried to get away, eventually leaving him in the street to die.
In June 2022 he was sentenced to 15 years’ jail.
March 2022
A 13-year-old boy is among the youngest Victorians to face trial for murder after he and seven other teenagers were committed to face a jury over the stabbing murder of Declan Cutler, 16.
The eight accused boys – aged 13 to 17 – each pleaded not guilty to the alleged pack murder in a children’s court in October 2022.
The decision of a magistrate to commit the youngest alleged offender, 13, meant that a jury could find he was criminally responsible for the killing, in Coburg, on March 13.
Declan had left a Reservoir party in the early hours of that Sunday morning to avoid a confrontation when he was allegedly set upon by a group and stabbed four times before dying within minutes.
The magistrate’s call to commit the boy came despite him being under 14, which under the law presumes he would not have had the knowledge to hold criminal intent.
It followed a psychologist’s earlier rejection of the presumption of “doli incapax” – translated from Latin to mean “incapable of evil” – after she found that the boy knew the killing was morally wrong.
A date for the Supreme Court trial is yet to be fixed.
March 2022
An 18-year-old man was stabbed in Federation Square as Moomba celebrations began on March 11.
The incident led Melbourne lord mayor Sally Capp to label the violence “disappointing”.
“It is unacceptable violent behaviour, whenever it happens and wherever it happens,” she said.
Victoria Police acting Superintendent Troy Papworth at the time warned people not to go to the city if they wanted to “cause trouble”.
December 2021
A Melbourne teen stabbed an aspiring personal trainer through the heart during a street brawl but claimed it was out of fear despite his shocking words to a friend after the attack.
Lindim Aliti was jailed for 6½ years over the stabbing death of 20-year-old Thomas Tran after a fight broke out between groups at Oakleigh on June 29, 2020.
But the 19-year-old killer who pleaded guilty to manslaughter will be eligible for parole after spending 3½ years behind bars.
The fatal fight was sparked after men engaged in “puerile” hand gestures and insults and things got out of hand, Justice Michael Croucher said in his sentence.
Both groups called for reinforcements and more than a dozen young men brandished knives and machetes after the groups met up in a carpark.
Aliti, then 18, showed up in response to a call out on Snapchat. He was hanging back when he saw Mr Tran’s group returning after they chased Aliti’s friends.
Aliti later remarked to his friends of the attack: “That’s one down now, confirmation.”
Mr Tran was unarmed and had no defensive wounds when he died at the scene from massive blood loss.
June 2020
Police vowed to ramp up their fight against violent youth gangs after a teenage boy was stabbed to death outside a church in Melbourne’s west.
The Herald Sun revealed tensions were brewing between rival Islander gangs “BH” Brotherhood and 97 in the days leading up to the alleged murder of Solomone Taufeulungaki, 15.
He was killed in an alleged gang attack outside the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Deer Park after leaving school.
Two boys, both aged 13½, were charged with the June 2020 Deer Park alleged pack murder of Solomone Taufeulungaki, 15, but their murder charges were later downgraded and they were dealt with in a children’s court.
June 2022
Disturbing vision emerged of a young man being violently attacked by a gang of youths with machetes on a busy Melbourne shopping strip.
The 23-year-old victim was stabbed, stomped on and punched multiple times by at least three hooded attackers, who police believe are in their late teens, on Buckingham Ave in Springvale about 9.30pm on June 16.
The man was reportedly slashed six times before being stomped on and punched as he lay defenceless on the ground.
The victim called emergency services from a nearby business after his attackers fled the scene.
The 23-year-old man suffered non life threatening injuries to his back and legs and was released from hospital days after the incident.
May 2020
A 15-year-old boy was in May 2020 charged with murder over the death of 17-year-old Aguer Akec in an alleged brawl in Melbourne’s west in December.
Aguer was allegedly stabbed outside Keilor Plains Railway Station in St Albans on December 22 and later died from his injuries.
It is believed up to 30 young people gathered on Kegan Street next to the train station, some armed with golf clubs, steel poles and a knife.
A dispute over a Holden Commodore is believed to have sparked the brawl.
Ten people were initially arrested and then released.
The 15-year-old Tarneit boy was arrested by the anti-bikie Echo Taskforce in Melbourne CBD.
He was interviewed about the death and Homicide Squad detectives later charged the teenager with murder.
He was due to face a Children’s Court over the death.
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