By Tammy Mills
Zabi Ezedyar.
Plasterer Zabi Ezedyar was visiting a Narre Warren home when he was shot several times from behind when he reached the front door and died on the pavement outside.
The Kurrajong Road property was home to underworld figure Mohammed Keshtiar – aka Afghan Ali – who was just out of jail and paroled to live at the house with his parents.
With nothing in his background to suggest he could be the target of the deadly shooting, homicide detectives are investigating the real possibility that 26-year-old Mr Ezedyar is the victim of yet another botched bikie gang shooting.
Three months earlier, and just over 15 kilometres away in Keysborough, 22-year-old Mohammed "Mo" Yucel opened the garage door of his friend's place. He ducked out into the rear laneway and was about to walk the few hundred metres home when he was gunned down.
Detectives strongly believe Mr Yucel was the victim of a stuff-up by the Comanchero bikie gang, who wanted another man, Farshad Rasooli, dead after a falling-out. Mr Rasooli had parked his car two doors down, outside where the unsuspecting Mr Yucel was playing video games with friends.
Muhammed Yucel.
The gunmen opened fired, killing Mr Yucel, and they continued shooting into the garage where they injured two of Mr Yucel's friends.
With Mr Ezedyar, detectives are more cautious. There are a number of lines of inquiries, so they can't say for sure that Mr Ezedyar was mistakenly shot, but like Mr Yucel, there is no strong reason why he should be the intended target.
There is also the powerful presence of Keshtiar, his links to the Mongols bikie gang and violent criminal history, which includes shootings, makes it easy to suppose he was the target.
"[A case of mistaken identity] is an avenue that we are looking at," Detective Inspector Tim Day said on Wednesday.
"For this investigation we’re looking into the possibility again of outlaw motor cycle gang activity (OMCG), particularly the Comancheros and other outlaw motor cycle gangs."
Echo taskforce acting Detective Senior Sergeant Paul Topham, who has been investigating Comancheros, refused to comment on the Ezedyar case. But he said if hits are ordered by bikie gangs, they'll be carried out by the club's lieutenants.
"Without speaking about this particular case, but in my experiences with OMCGs, if a criminal offence of a serious nature was to be committed, it would most likely be ordered by the high-ranking members of a club that will then be tasked-down to lower members of the club to commit the offence," he said.
Two cars have been linked to Mr Ezedyar's murder. First, a Honda CRV was spotted following his car shortly before he was killed, and was last seen driving south on Kurrajong Road.
A Honda CRV, like this one, was seen following Mr Ezedyar before he was shot.
Detective Inspector Day said investigators have also received consistent and multiple bits of information about a white Toyota Corolla, possibly a 2014-15 model, that is somehow linked to the shooting or the offenders in the lead-up.
A late-model Toyota Corolla, similar to this one, is also linked to Mr Ezedyar's death.
Ezedyar's family, meanwhile, are devastated. The keen boxer had moved from Perth to Melbourne seven months earlier to work with his cousin and had moved out of home for the first time.
In an emotional appeal for information, his mother Mariam and sister Deana said they weren’t aware Ezedyar knew Keshtiar, but his mother knew his family from Afghanistan, which they had fled 30 years earlier because of war.
“It has destroyed us,” Deana said of her younger brother’s death.
“We think of him every day ... we just want justice. Whoever did this, just come forward. If you’ve got a family you’ll come forward. If you have a brother, a sister, wife or kids you’ll come forward He died innocently.”
Anyone with information, particularly about the cars, is urged to come forward by phoning Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or submitting a confidential report online.