Avondale Heights gunman Iwata Takashi shot at Indian chef, thought victim was in the ‘Mafia’
A tooled-up “action man” blasted a high-powered semiautomatic handgun during a brazen shooting near the Avondale Heights Macca’s after mistaking an Indian chef for a member of the Mafia.
North West
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An Avondale Heights “action man” blasted a high-powered gun at a motorist after thinking the target was in the Mafia, a court has heard.
Iwata Takashi, 39, pleaded guilty in the County Court on Wednesday to discharge a firearm at a vehicle and various drug charges.
Takashi, a mechanical engineer, launched into action after his mate “Ash” called to say someone was tailing him through Melbourne’s northwest.
Ash had just picked up a woman from the Roxburgh Park Hotel carpark when he spotted a silver ute following his vehicle late on August 3 last year.
Takashi instructed his mate to “drive slow” and “go around in circles” to lose his pursuer.
Ash took the mystery motorist to Takashi's street after more than an hour into the cat and mouse road pursuit.
Takashi — who told his mate he was “going to get him” — armed himself with a loaded Browning pistol and took to the street.
The tooled-up vigilante followed the ute to nearby Avondale Heights McDonald’s where he drove head on at his target.
The ute driver bailed out of the Macca’s carpark with Takashi hot on his tail.
Takashi cornered his victim on Raglan St, pulled out his pistol and fired a shot towards the ute just after 10.30pm.
The bullet lodged in the front grill of the vehicle.
The driver, an Indian chef with no known connection to the Mafia, ran to the McDonald’s where police members were inside.
“Where you going?” Takashi yelled at his victim before fleeing the scene.
Takashi went on the run for two days before police nabbed him with drugs and the still loaded pistol at a Darley property.
Police also discovered a bullet cartridge in his car.
Takashi told investigators he was “sleeping” when his distressed mate called him.
“I did a stupid thing,” Takashi said.
“I wanted to talk to him, frighten him … I thought it was a member of the Mafia.”
It was later revealed the victim was a Roxburgh Park Hotel chef who had been in a relationship with the woman in Takashi’s mate’s car.
“I saw an Indian man and thought what the … I thought it was someone from the Mafia,” Takashi said.
Takashi’s barrister said her client’s “excessive self-defence” mitigated the offending.
It was submitted his mate was “begging for help” and “fearing for his life”.
“There was urgency,” she said.
“(My client) intervened to stop it.”
Judge John Carmody said Takashi or his mate could have reported the ordeal to police.
“How many times would they have gone past Broadmeadows police station in that time,” Judge Carmody said.
“ (Takashi thought) he’s going to take the law into his own hands … and he did.”
Judge Carmody also queried why Takashi thought the Indian chef was in the Mafia.
The barrister said her client had no criminal connections and appeared about to say the Mafia didn’t exist before Judge Carmody intervened.
“There is a real Mafia,” he said.
It was submitted Takashi, who has “anger problems” and a “short temper”, attempted to defuse the situation.
But Judge Carmody said Takashi reverted to “action man” mode.
“He sees a problem, he fixes it,” Judge Carmody said.
“I’ve got a loaded gun and a bag, I’ll get into the car and go into action mode … it could’ve been deadly.
“He directs how it’s going to end ‘drive here, drive there’.”
The barrister said firing the gun was “all for show”.
“ (Takashi) pointed it down,” she said.
Judge Carmody said firing guns in a public street is an “overstatement of one’s capacity”.
“It’s not like it is in the movies,” he said.
Judge Carmody said Takashi wouldn’t have too many problems after inmates found out he fired a gun to stick up for a mate.
“I would’ve thought in prison they may step away from him,” he said.
Takashi was remanded for sentencing on October 1.
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