How a bungled bikie hit claimed the wrong men’s lives
When a team of hare-brained hitmen went after what police suspect were figures linked to the Mongols motorcycle gang, their botched attempts led to the death of the wrong men. Now police are determined to catch their killers.
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They were dead unlucky, collateral damage in what is suspected of being Comanchero-Mongol bikie conflict.
Melbourne has a long history of hitmen with room temperature IQs, and the murders of Muhammed Yucel and Zabi Ezedyar are two of the more striking examples of their unskilled handiwork.
To say the pair were in the wrong place at the wrong time would be too kind to the shooters.
The dreadful misfortune of their deaths is not the only link between the two killings, just three months apart in 2017.
The likely intended victims in both cases were figures linked to the Mongols outlaw motorcycle gang and, police suspect, senior players in the rival Comanchero gang wanted them dead.
On the night of May 2, the hard-working 22-year-old Mr Yucel was sitting in a Keysborough garage playing computer games with mates he was visiting.
That evening, as he called it a night, he lifted the garage door and moved to get under it and walk to his car.
The shooters would have barely gotten a look at Mr Yucel but they opened fire anyway, blasting their victim in the chest.
He scrambled back inside as the door was dragged down, but the shooters continued pulling the trigger, wounding his mates.
Mr Yucel died at the scene.
It would later be revealed that muscle-bound Farshad Rasooli, at the time a member of the Mongols motorcycle gang was a possible target.
Rasooli lived on Church Rd with his wife and daughter and had been shot previously in the leg.
He had reportedly taken to parking his flashy BMW away from his home, possibly to divert the kind of unwanted guests who might aim for the head next time.
There is almost no resemblance between Mr Yucel and Rasooli but the trigger-happy killers were not about to check they had the right victim.
Police would later run a major search of an area of scrub beside the Great Ocean Rd for evidence.
A gun used by the hare-brained hit team was found at Spout Creek and investigators would subsequently burn a small area of grass in an effort to uncover more evidence.
A grey Toyota Corolla seen in the Spout Creek area in the period after the shooting was a key element of the inquiry, as was a Jeep Cherokee seized from Cranbourne.
On August 16 of the same year, Ferntree Gully man Zabi Ezedyar was shot dead in the driveway as he visited a house in Narre Warren.
The 26-year-old’s vehicle had earlier been tailed by a Honda CRV, which sped from the scene after the gunfire erupted at 7.40pm.
Mr Ezedyar suffered severe wounds to the upper body and died at the scene.
There were immediate fears he was not the intended victim because the property was the home of crime figure Mohammed Keshtiar.
The shadowy Keshtiar — known in the underworld as Afghan Ali — was an aggressive member of the Mongols, heavily involved in recruiting for the gang
The head of the homicide squad, Insp. Tim Day, was later to say that there was nothing in Mr Ezedyar’s background that made him a likely murder target.
“For this investigation we’re looking into the possibility again of OMCG activity, particularly the Comancheros and other outlaw motorcycle gangs,” he said.
Anyone wanting to see the impact of the bungled crime needed only to listen to Mr Ezedyar’s sister Deana as she pleaded for public help to get the family justice.
“It has destroyed all of us,” she said.
“He loved his family, he was very family orientated.”
Deana said her brother would never be mixed up in crime.
“I always told him ... there are always people out there that are stronger than you, just be careful,” she said.
“And he always used to say ... ‘you’ve got to protect yourself in this world’ and he was right.
The cases remain active homicide squad investigations.
Anyone able to help can contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or visit crimestoppersvic.com.au