Kittens nightclub in South Melbourne hit by drive-by shooting
LATEST: AN under-siege strip club in a busy Melbourne street was shot at yesterday afternoon as the industry’s security war continues to escalate.
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AN under-siege strip club in a busy Melbourne street was shot at yesterday afternoon as the industry’s security war continues to escalate.
The Comancheros bikie gang has been linked with four attacks on Kittens in the past six months and management said the shooters were trying to put them out of business.
In response to the daylight shooting, strip club bosses said they would step up security at the venue to 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
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Did you witness the incident? Contact reporter David Hurley at david.hurley@news.com.au
A Kittens spokesman said: “This has happened in daylight in one of the busiest streets in Melbourne. Somebody could have been killed.”
Anti-bikie police from Echo taskforce are investigating the attacks.
The popular club in Cecil St, South Melbourne was shot at for the third time in three months yesterday about 3pm.
The club’s sister venue in Caulfield South was destroyed in a firebombing in February.
Yesterday a masked man in a black, hooded jumper got out of a dark-coloured car outside the club armed with a shotgun.
He walked to the front of the venue, which was closed at the time, before firing two shots into windows and one into the door.
The man’s shotgun is understood to have jammed and he returned to the car before coming back to shoot at the club, despite the presence of several bystanders.
Following the previous attacks Kittens hired armed guards from Guardia Australia, which employs ex-soldiers, to carry out patrols outside the venue.
Last night armed guards were outside the club.
Police flocked to the scene yesterday and quickly cordoned off the street as stunned shoppers looked on.
Corinne Valenti, from Reece Plumbing Centre, was working next door when the shots were fired.
“I heard a bang ... when we went outside I heard someone saying something about gunshots and then another shot was fired,” she said. “It’s quite scary to think this is happening in broad daylight.”
The Kittens spokesman told the Herald Sun he was concerned the shootings were continuing to occur.
“We are obviously being targeted but shootings are happening around Melbourne every week and it is time the government introduced tougher laws to crack down on this,” he said.
“Echo are looking into it. But nobody has come to us and said this is what we want. It is just getting out of control. We’ll be open for business.”
Bouncers at the Cecil St venue were shot at on November 30 last year and January 5 this year.
Security figure Clay Auimatagi, who was in charge of security at Kittens, parted ways with the business following the January shooting.
In September last year Mr Auimatagi was shot in the leg outside his Skamma Gym in Vesper Drive, Narre Warren.
Following the second shooting in South Melbourne, the Kittens club in Caulfield South was destroyed by a fire on February 16.
Comancheros associate Mark Ahern, 31, was arrested and charged with arson following the fire.
Nobody has been charged over the drive-by shootings at the South Melbourne venue.
Acting Sergeant Tony Benham, from Echo taskforce, said it was concerning that the shootings had escalated from night time to day time.
“At the end of the day, we will get to the bottom of it and find out who was responsible for it,” he said.
@davidhurleyHS