By Karen Sweeney
Momin Khan has been heartbroken since the moment his 20-year-old son Rahat was shot dead in a suburban street two years ago.
He fled Melbourne's Supreme Court on Wednesday in tears, distraught as his son's killer, Kamil Yucel, 30, was sentenced to five years prison for manslaughter.
Rahat Khan
With time served and a non-parole period of three years, Yucel could walk free as early as next June.
Outside court, Momin Khan said his family came to Australia when Rahat was seven and his son had taken up cricket and Australian football.
"My son, he loved everyone," he said.
"I'm heartbroken. All my family, my children, all of them like me, their heart is broken."
Justice Lesley Taylor said Yucel spent the year before the 2016 shooting living in fear of a man who alleged Yucel owed him a debt.
After a dispute in May 2015, which ended with an associate of Yucel shooting the man in the leg, the man made it known he would seek revenge.
Justice Taylor described Yucel's fear of him as genuine and reasonable, noting police had contacted him over concerns for his safety.
On the day Rahat Khan died, he had attended evening prayers at a local mosque and stopped for food at a kebab shop with his friend Masi Rawan.
Both were associates of the man Yucel was afraid of.
Justice Taylor said Mr Khan received a text from the man shortly before the shooting and the pair then drove to Yucel's house.
There was an angry exchange outside and Yucel was heard telling the men to leave, not to make him angry and threatening to shoot them.
He pulled a gun, fired twice and hit Khan first in the leg and then the chest, though that was not immediately clear.
Mr Khan and Mr Rawan got back in their car and drove away. After realising his friend had been shot, Mr Rawan tried to find a hospital and stopped for help at a shopping centre but paramedics were unable to save him.
Yucel told a neighbour twice not to tell police what had happened and checked in to an airport hotel the following day. He was arrested two days later.
Justice Taylor said Yucel, a champion kickboxer who took up the sport at 15, had good prospects of rehabilitation.
She accepted his remorse was genuine and, after hearing victim impact statements from Mr Khan's family, had written to the young man's parents with an apology.
AAP