Large group of youths wreaks havoc in Taylors Hill, throwing rocks at police car
THE reason behind a terrifying Taylors Hill rampage involving more than 100 out-of-control youths has been revealed. It comes as residents told of their fear as the “screaming” gangs hurled rocks and smashed a police car windscreen last night.
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LATEST: The reason behind a terrifying Taylors Hill rampage involving more than 100 out-of-control youths has been revealed.
While residents recounted seeing more about 100 African youths gathered, Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton said this morning he believed the numbers were “around 20 or 30” with some there just as spectators to the fight.
“It was kids from our Sudanese-Australian community coming from the southern suburbs to meet up with kids from the northern suburbs and having a bit of a clash,” he said.
“I think it was over a couple of girlfriends or something like that.
“It was just a case of two groups coming together to have a fight about it.”
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North West Metro Commander Tim Hansen said police were yet to make any arrests following the night of trouble.
He said police on the scene had concentrated on maintaining public order and defusing the volatile situation.
When asked why police who were present made no arrests, Mr Hansen said detectives were now going through CCTV and identifying several suspects.
He said that police became aware of a large fight between two groups being planned on social media yesterday afternoon and confirmed that evidence strongly suggested the fight originated from a dispute over a girl.
“Police became aware of a planned fight destined to occur at the Watergardens shopping centre,” Mr Hansen said
“It would appear the genesis of this fight was a teenage relationship issue over a girl.
“That quite quickly became the focus of social media attention and as a result two distinct groups of friends met up at this location and the situation escalated rather rapidly.
“Police attended with the information we had at hand. We located approximately 50 youths congregating around the shopping centre.
Commander Hansen said: “We immediately commenced co-ordinating a policing response to the threat based on the intelligence and information we had at hand.”
“Our planning was linked in to our intelligence sources with real time intelligence based on social media.
“Police commanders decided that we would have local police on the ground and our public order response teams to come and join that police presence.
“At this point in time it was quite clear to us the intent of the group was to escalate the public order threat and to become involved in some sort of violence so that was a real concern for us.
“However, our disruption measures and our presence were very successful and we dispersed the groups.
“They got on buses and we made a risk based judgement to monitor the activity of these groups.
“Whilst we had dispersed the group we certainly hadn’t concluded the threat.”
“We followed the groups to a location in Taylors Hill called Lonzo Park,” Commander Hansen said.
“We then set ourselves up at that location and began monitoring the behaviour of the group. We were also engaging with them and trying to understand what the angst was and how we could possibly intervene and avoid any violence.
“During this time we were receiving a whole lot of calls from residents and members of the public who were quite concerned about the large gathering of youths at that location.
“Not long after that we started to see these groups become unruly in their behaviour. That then escalated to the throwing of stones and the damaging of some parked vehicles.
“This obviously required us to escalate our tactics. We put a senior command team in place overseeing the incident and we commenced a co-ordination process in relation to our response thinking through what our tactics needed to look like.
“And also trying to make that place as safe as quickly as we could and try and look after the local residents.”
Mr Hansen said he was confident detectives from a specialist taskforce set up to disrupt crime in Melbourne’s west would soon make a number of arrests.
Speaking on ABC radio this morning, Mr Ashton stated that Victoria Police has “never said” there was not a problem with Sudanese gangs in Victoria.
“No one’s said it’s never been a problem, no one said it’s not something we’re trying to address … that’s something that seems to have been fictionalised,” Mr Ashton said.
He said the “traditional” label of a gang might make people think of people in leather jackets like in the New York street gangs of “West Side Story” — but groups of youths at the centre of recent violence in Melbourne were more “loosely” connected and organised through social media.
“You can call them what you like, it’s just a label. Their groups of kids coming together … you can call them gangs, absolutely,” Mr Ashton said.
It comes as extra police patrol the suburb in Melbourne’s northwest on horseback this morning.
South Sudanese community leaders say teens are being left to run riot because they are not being supervised at home and seek out trouble at night out of boredom.
Ahmed Hassan, one of the members of the joint African and police taskforce, said it was believed the friction was between groups from the southeast, around Dandenong, and other youths from the western suburbs near Wyndham.
The violence was indicative of a need to get young people after school activities, Mr Hassan said.
“We do call on parents to take responsibility but families need ample support,” he said.
“These young people need to be engaging positively after hours, for example in sport.”
‘THE POLICE CAN’T TOUCH US’
RESIDENTS have told of their terror as up to 100 rampaging youths charged through the streets of Taylors Hill last night, hurling rocks and smashing a police car window as they bragged that police couldn’t touch them.
The Herald Sun witnessed dozens of heavily armed riot and plain-clothed police, who blocked off main roads and diverted traffic in Taylors Hill and Caroline Springs and told locals not to leave their houses.
In one video, the dog squad can be seen corralling a group of youths, who scream and shout as they flee down the road.
David Driscoll said he and his two daughters locked themselves inside as a large group of African youths “ran around the streets screaming” in frightening scenes in Melbourne’s northwest last night.
“They were screaming, ‘the police can’t touch us, they can’t do anything,’” he said.
“There were police cars everywhere with their lights on and the helicopter was around for (about) an hour,” he said.
A police spokeswoman said officers responded to reports about the large group about 5.30pm. She said a number of “projectiles, believed to be rocks”, were thrown.
One smashed the rear windscreen of a police car as officers were forced to wear riot gear for protection.
RAMPAGING YOUTHS THERE FOR ‘WAR’
A BRONTE Way resident said they saw two groups of about 100 people near parks around their home, with police telling them the youths were there for “war”.
“There were massive groups,” the worried resident said.
“I had to wait for (about) seven or eight to move from my driveway when I tried to drive into my garage.”
The resident said they called police about 7.20pm and were told officers had blocked the road near Taylors Hill Coles on Gourlay Rd.
“In one area, there is a massive group the police said were Sudanese, and near the park in Bronte Way, there was another really large group of Sudanese and they basically said they don’t have it under control but there is a strong police presence,” they said.
Rocchina Pignataro said she and her husband were told by police to stay inside as the large group ran across her driveway and front lawn.
“They weren’t doing anything (to us) but we were scared they were going to,” Ms Pignataro said.
“They just wanted to cause trouble, it was pretty scary especially for our kids,” she said.
Victoria Police Commander Tim Hansen slammed the rampaging youth this morning.
“I just want to reassure everyone we take a zero tolerance approach to this kind of behaviour,” he told 3AW.
“We’re really disappointed with it, and you’ll certainly see some movement in the investigation.”
Premier Daniel Andrews said the Taylors Hill incident would have been “very, very distressing for local residents”.
“They can be assured we will continue to provide Victoria Police with every single thing they need in order to fight crime and make the community safer,” he said.
Mr Andrews praised police for responding quickly and in force to the incident.
RESIDENTS SAY GROUP ‘OUT OF CONTROL’
ANOTHER neighbour, Ashlee, who did not wish to give her surname, said she received a call from her neighbour telling her to stay where she was and “whatever you do, don’t come home”.
When the young mother finally came home around 7pm, a group of about 40 African youths started charging towards her car, she said.
“They just started running towards our car and across our grass because police were chasing them from the other side,” she said.
Ashlee said she was surprised to see the majority of the group were young females.
“(Police) we’re trying to disperse them but every time they did the girls just came back,” she said.
A Bronte Way resident said her house was pelted with rocks as she was putting her children to bed.
“And about 100-150 African youths (were) on the basket ball court yelling and chanting and jumping on top of electricity boxes at the park,” she said. “They were out of control.”
She said large groups would often congregate in the park in the warmer months and she had called police “numerous times” to report disturbances.
“They told me to stay inside, lock the doors and yeah, it’s scary, I’ve got a nine-year-old and an 11-year-old, and they’re scared.”
Taylors Hill resident Peter Lazaridis, who saw 30 youths of African appearance walking in the area, described the situation as “scary”.
He said the group congregated at the local park. “I’m s--- scared,” he said.
Terrified residents say the park is regularly overrun by disruptive youths.
A young mum who lives opposite the park said: “It happens all for time … maybe four times a week.”
“They come here with their subwoofers. I don’t go outside. There would be about 20 of them each time.”
YOUTHS WERE ‘STILL IN SCHOOL UNIFORM’
GRANT Brown heard a commotion in Cumberland Grove.
“There was yelling, carrying on, screaming,” he said. “There were two circles that looked like they were going to start fighting. There was 100 kids, so I called triple-0.
“A lot of them were in school uniform still wearing slacks with black shoes and a red jumper. Some of them were wearing tracksuit pants.”
Mr Brown said he was “disgusted”.
“Where are the parents? I was quite angry about it to be honest that they’re disturbing the peace. It’s usually a quiet little pocket,” he said.
It’s believed the youths met at Watergardens and then caught buses to Taylors Hill before gathering at Lonzo Park.
One resident told the Herald Sun the area was a notorious hotspot for local youths to gather at night in large groups.
The police spokeswoman said there were no reports of injuries.
“Police continued to patrol the area and monitor the situation as the youths dispersed and were moved on from the area a short time later,” she said.
The Bronte Way resident said they had concerns in the past and had discussed with other locals the potential of danger when walking alone in the parks at night.
“Everyone says you never walk through that park because someone will get you, everyone knows that, that’s what they say.”
Police will investigate the damage to the police vehicle.
Anyone with information is urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.