How local’s firefighting efforts and neighbourhood CCTV may be key to finding Gavin Preston’s killers
Police have pieced together the path Gavin Preston’s killers took after his brazen execution and the actions of a resident who came across a burning getaway car may provide a breakthrough.
Police & Courts
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Police investigating the brazen daylight execution of gangland figure Gavin Preston may have crucial evidence identifying his murderers thanks to the quick-thinking actions of a local resident.
The hit man and his getaway driver failed to destroy their Audi Q5 vehicle after setting it alight and fleeing because a homeowner heard the commotion and doused the blaze with a garden hose.
The stolen car, which was dumped in Blair Court in Keilor, just before 10.20am on Saturday, is now being forensically examined, along with a black Volkswagen Polo which was abandoned in Cadiz Place, just three kilometres away.
Both assailants were dressed head to toe in black – including gloves – so homicide squad detectives do not believe they’ll find fingerprints.
However, it’s hoped other crucial evidence was left behind including DNA traces.
Witnesses said the Audi was left across a driveway and the hit man exited the passenger seat door holding two black back packs, believed to contain the murder weapon and a change of clothes, and fled.
The getaway driver set the vehicle alight, with a fire ball appearing to engulf the top half of his body, including his face, while his left arm stayed ablaze.
It will likely be a crucial injury that investigators will be looking for among their list of suspects.
On Cadiz Place, Keilor, where the second getaway vehicle was dumped minutes later, a resident who wished to remain anonymous for fear of repercussions said: “About 10.30am I left the court to go to the shops and I saw a black Volkswagen come into the court but didn’t see who came out”.
It’s understood police have collected CCTV footage from various residents’ houses.
Gavin Preston, 50, had only recently been released from prison for the 2012 killing of drug dealer Adam Khoury.
On Saturday morning, he was sitting with Abbas Junior Maghnie, the son of slain gangster Nabil Maghnie, at Sweet Lulu’s cafe in Keilor when they were targeted.
A man is captured on CCTV racing up to the standover man before firing up to 10 shots.
Preston died at the scene and Maghnie was shot in the stomach as he fled. He remains in hospital.
The suspects then drove into the back streets of Keilor, dumping the Audi in Blair Court, next to a path that leads into King Solomon Reserve.
Witnesses in Blair Court and nearby Feathertop Drive saw two men, clad entirely in black, remove two backpacks from the vehicle.
One of the men then poured what is believed to be an accelerant in the footwell of the driver’s seat before setting the car alight.
As the hit men made their way into the park, the Herald Sun can reveal a local in a tracksuit saw the car on fire and used the hose from of his house and buckets of water to douse the vehicle, putting the fire out almost immediately.
Police and fire crews arrived 14 minutes later.
A police source confirmed detectives had spoken to several witnesses in Blair Court and been given CCTV of the drama unfolding in the street, adding one of the hit men appeared to have been badly burnt.
“Given they had just shot a man dead in broad daylight in a busy shopping strip just 900m away on a Saturday morning, they acted very casually, removing bags from the vehicle before casually emptying a flammable liquid around the driver’s seat,” a source said.
“The seat catches fire, but he also sets his hand alight. You can see him walking back and forth, shaking his hand . . . it continued to burn for about a minute, so we believe he may have extensive damage to that hand.”
The duo then walked 50m before getting into a black Volkswagen Polo, parked in Solomon Drive.
Police believe it turned left on to Green Gully Road, then right into Sunshine Ave, before being abandoned in nearby Cadiz Place, Keilor Downs – less than four kilometres from the murder scene.
Homicide Squad detectives were still hunting the suspects on Monday night.
Preston was involved in standover work before he was killed and it is believed he had stolen trucks connected to the Notorious Crime Family gang of crime boss George Marrogi.
But there is no clear motive and his case was similar to that of Mohammed “Afghan Ali” Keshtiar, murdered last month at South Yarra, because of the wide range of possibilities.
There have been underworld murmurings about a connection to the recent desecration of the crypt of Marrogi’s sister Meshilin at Preston Cemetery.
Police are understood to believe it is unlikely there is a link
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