Melbourne party tower death: Victim named as ‘beautiful soul’ Laa Chol, 19

African community leaders in Melbourne ‘deeply shocked’ by the death of Laa Chol at an out-of-control party as manhunt continues.

Laa Chol died after a clash between two groups of people at a short-stay rental apartment in Melbourne’s CBD.

The killer of a 19-year-old Melbourne woman who died during a wild party in a city high-rise remains on the run.

Laa Chol, of Pakenham, died during the out-of-control party in the short-term stay unit on the 56th floor of the EQ Tower early on Saturday morning. A group of young African Australians, in their late teens and early 20s according to media reports, had rented the apartment for the party when a second group arrived and a fight broke out.

Her death comes days after Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull renewed the debate over crime among African-Australian youths.

On Sunday, Premier Daniel Andrews said “any crime is a great tragedy and obviously our thoughts and prayers and best wishes are with everybody affected” but reiterated the government’s efforts on tackling youth crime. “If we want to have a proper discussion about youth crime or crime in any sense you can’t ignore there is a need to invest in TAFE and the education system,” he told reporters.

Ms Chol’s killer is still on the run.

“There’s enormous efforts that have been put in place in terms of engaging not only with individual young people, (but) their families, community leaders, getting them back to school, in to training, in to jobs, making sure they make much better decisions for themselves and the rest of the Victorian community. “For some, that means spending some time in the youth justice facility, I make no apologies for that.”

In a statement South Sudanese community leaders Kenyatta Dei Wal and Ahmed Hassan said: “This is a tragic incident that has cut a young person’s life short. The community is deeply shocked.”

‘SHE DIDN’T DESERVE ANY OF THIS’

A dozen partygoers have been questioned by police over Ms Chol’s death. It’s unclear who attacked her or what her injuries were, but police said a number of young people left the party immediately afterwards. CCTV has reportedly been retrieved to assist with the investigation.

Asked whether the culprit or culprits were among the 12 people interviewed, Commander Tim Hansen said “I don’t think so”.

“(It was a) fairly chaotic scene, there was obviously a number of people out the front,” he told reporters.

“It would be fair to say they were upset, obviously, and quite emotive. However, the police members were never threatened or challenged and took control of the scene pretty quickly.” The young woman from Pakenham was “was like a little sister,” family friend Baya told the Herald Sun .

Ms Chol, 19, was ‘not known for causing trouble’ friends say.

“She was a very quiet person, she kept her family together, she was the eldest sibling,” the woman said.

“She’s not known for causing trouble, she doesn’t rent hotels or go to parties. This was a one-off.” On Facebook, another friend said Ms Chol was “such a beautiful soul & didn’t deserve any of this”.

The 19-year-old died at the apartment shortly after 5am following a dispute between a group which had hired it out and another arriving later. It’s unclear what brought the second group to the apartment but Commander Hansen said there was no sign of forced entry.

Support was being offered to the African-Australian community, of which the victim and partygoers were members, he added.

About a quarter of the EQ Tower apartments are short-term stays, according to Melbourne Real Estate which manages rentals in the A’Beckett St address. One of its residents, Sean, said it was a growing problem in the tower.

The EQ tower building on A'Beckett Street in Melbourne, where Ms Chol died.

“This is a tragedy that sadly has been building and building over the last few months,” he said.

“What we’re seeing increasingly is these parties of youths getting out of control.

“They seem to come and go at short notice. Many of them are obviously intoxicated or on other substances.

“As residents, we feel intimidated that we’re unable to ask them to keep the noise down.” Another man said that at the beginning of the night he saw a few girls in the EQ Tower lobby and a group of young men “running and yelling” outside around 4am or 5am.

AAP