Police piece together final moments before Nabil Maghnie was shot
Explosive details have emerged of the moments leading up to Nabil Maghnie’s death, with fears growing that the notorious standover man’s killing could provoke retribution.
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Police are investigating whether crime figure Nabil Maghnie was bashing a standover victim moments before being shot dead.
The Herald Sun believes a key line of inquiry is that Maghnie was assaulting a man just before the fatal confrontation at Lalor, in Melbourne’s north.
Maghnie, his son Abbas, 27, and another man, 44, are believed to have arrived at a Dalton Rd house on Thursday night to collect payment of a large “debt”.
That money was being demanded to compensate for minor damage to the car of a Maghnie family member.
Nabil Maghnie is then believed to have attacked the householder before someone else at the property pulled out a gun and opened fire.
“Negotiations have broken down,” a police source said.
Maghnie was fatally shot and collapsed with his stricken 44-year-old associate at the edge of the road.
Abbas is believed to have run to the Taco Bill Restaurant at the intersection of Dalton and Childs roads to get help.
There were dramatic scenes immediately after the killing when Abbas — with a knee wound and wearing a hospital gown — returned to Dalton Rd where he was comforted by relatives and friends.
There is no suggestion Maghnie was the victim of a contract ambush. “This is his own shit that’s gone wrong. Nabil’s doing business as usual and the victim’s fought back,” a source said.
Some police fear the shooting could spark tit-for-tat violence from Maghnie associates.
Maghnie — who had been charged more than 200 times — had come to the attention of several law enforcement bodies, including Victoria Police, Australian Federal Police and the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission.
Police are now waiting to see if his allies seek to avenge the death of the Middle-Eastern organised crime figure.
“There will certainly be some unrest and reprisals,” a source told the Herald Sun. “The next few days could be interesting.”
The trigger-happy Maghnie had spent years on the other end of the gun, building a reputation as one of the Melbourne underworld’s most feared figures.
The 44-year-old had been involved in many unsolved shootings, drug trafficking and standover activities.
“He was too hot for too long,” a seasoned police source said.
Maghnie was reputedly close to Comanchero bikie gang president Mick Murray and office-bearer Hasan Topal.
A high-level police operation years ago named Maghnie as possibly having accepted a contract to kill a prominent underworld figure.
But one theory is that Maghnie took the $150,000 fee, didn’t do the job and told the intended target.
The man who hired Maghnie to carry out the murder was later shot dead in the northern suburbs.
The intended target was later charged with the killing.
Witnesses to Thursday night’s violence were left shaken. Local woman Dina Banchy called an ambulance when she came across the shooting on her way home.
“As I got out of the bus I saw two people out on the road. The bus driver saw it too and I thought ‘Is this for real?’ “ she said.
“You never expect to see something like that, I thought maybe someone was playing some joke but as I got out of the bus I saw there was a lot of blood there, they’d been gunned down.
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“It’s shocking to see something like that. Nobody expects it. I can still see this guy looking at me near the gutter, he was just flat on the ground. The other guy was rolling around.”
Louis Frendo, who also lives on Dalton Rd said the scene was like something you’d see “in a movie or on TV”.
He said that while the street was normally quiet, there was an incident involving other residents in the days leading up to the shooting.
“It’s always quiet. I have been living here for 40 years, I’ve never had trouble with anybody,” he said. “Maybe two days ago something happened but I wasn’t here. I don’t know what was going on. I think they had an argument.”
Emergency services arrived at the scene soon after the shooting, and paramedics attempted to revive Maghnie for up to 30 minutes.