A FATHER of three has been gunned down by a gang in a brutal ambush in a residential street.
The man was shot from point-blank range outside an Epping home late on Saturday by the gang, who were today still being hunted by police.
Neighbours told the Herald Sun that hours before the shooting a group of men tried to break into the house.
One said: “I saw a man holding a bat or plank of wood, screaming ‘someone is going to die’.”
SES search for evidence. Picture: Kris Reichl
Homicide detective Shane O’Connell said police were aware of an incident in the afternoon and it would form part of the investigation.
Detectives were also last night scouring vision from a security camera the owner had installed on his house.
It’s believed the cameras were added to the house about a month ago.
Bullet holes in vehicle outside the house. Picture: Kris Reichl
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The house where the shooting happened. Picture: Kris Reichl
A bullet hole through the window. Picture: Kris Reichl
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Neighbours said there was often trouble at the home.
“It is a loud house, lots of people coming and going at all hours.”
The garage at the property. Picture: Kris Reichl
It is understood that the man’s three children, all under six, were sleeping in the house at the time.
Neighbours said the man did not live there and may have been mistaken for the owner.
They said the man had come to help over a debt issue.
Police led by Homicide Detective Snr Sgt Shane O’Connell from the Homicide Squad in Plowman Court Epping where shooting occurred. Picture: Kris Reichl.
Police would not comment on the theory of mistaken identity.
A group of at least five, possibly carrying more than one weapon, killed the man about 11pm when they shot him through the chest as he opened the front door, then wounded his brother.
Neighbour Debbie Tuckerman, a nurse, said she ran to the home to find a man lying in a pool of blood and his frantic wife screaming next to him.
“She was screaming, ‘he is going to die’,” Ms Tuckerman said.
The nurse felt for a pulse but could not find one.
She started CPR and kept working until the paramedics arrived and declared the man dead.
As the other men inside the house tried to chase the gang, another volley of at least six shots was fired, hitting a nearby car.
The gang then fled through a park and over a footbridge on to the nearby main road.
Detectives last night called for witnesses.
The wounded man was taken to The Alfred hospital shortly after the shooting and discharged hours later.
One neighbour said the owner had enlisted his friends on the street after an earlier altercation.
“The owner knew there was going to be trouble so he got the others to come over, they were just there to help him.”
Ms Tuckerman said the dead man’s family had thanked her for trying to save him.
“They are really upset. His wife is in shock, she doesn’t know what to tell the children,’’ she said.
Homicide detective Sen-Sgt Shane O’Connell said the victim of the shooting was not a resident but a friend visiting the home.
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