A man has been shot dead in a daylight attack near a kindergarten in Melbourne’s outer north.
Athan Boursinos, 21, is suspected of being linked to the daylight gangland execution of underworld figure Sam ‘The Punisher’ Abdulrahim.
Detectives admitted the murder appeared to be ‘very deliberate and obviously targeted’ and Boursinos was ‘known’ to them.
He was due to appear in court on Thursday and is believed to have been on his way there when his assassins struck.
Images given to the Daily Mail revealed the well-dressed dead man’s body lying close to a grey BMW with the driver door open and the engine apparently still running.
A neighbour said her brother heard the shots and ran out to see the man’s last breaths before he died.
‘My brother did hear the shots and he went and saw him still moving until he lost his life,’ the neighbour who did not wish to be named said.
‘Straight away he went out [toward the deceased man], I think the neighbour next door also talked to him.
‘We were able to see the body from our backyard, I have shown [footage] to the police.’
He added: ‘[The dead man] has been living around here.
‘Sometimes there’s issues where police get involved, cars sometimes come, young people always around,
‘We don’t know him personally – we just know him as neighbours.
Homicide squad Detective Inspector Dean Thomas said police believed there was a confrontation between two men in Game Lane, a laneway behind Champions Parade just before 9am.
The gunman shot and killed the man in the laneway before fleeing in a vehicle. Neighbours say the Boursinos lived just 20m from where he was gunned down.
‘We also have reports of a vehicle being found burnt out in Amery Street in Reservoir. Det Insp Thomas told reporters.
‘We don’t know if that is linked to this particular incident this morning. We will work now to piece together what has gone on to identify those responsible.’
The detective said police had not yet formally identified the dead man, but he was known to police.
Friends and associates of the dead man, including a woman believed to be his fiancée and a man in a white balaclava, gathered at the scene moments after the killing.
Police separated the dead man’s supporters from the media after hostile confrontations between the two.
Underworld sources have suggested the dead man was the getaway driver in the hit on Abdulrahim in January.
Abdulrahim was gunned down by a team of assassins on January 28 in the underground car park at Preston’s Quest Hotel in Melbourne’s north.
The champion kickboxer had been a key player in Melbourne’s ongoing ‘tobacco wars’, which has seen shops around the state torched in a deadly turf war.
A crime scene has been established on Champions Parade in Wollert, in Melbourne’s north, following the fatal shooting.
Independent journalist Ryan Naumenko’s news site Outlaw Media was quick to label the alleged murder a gangland hit.
‘The young man murdered this morning at 9am is suspected of being the killer of Sam … Abdulrahim,’ he wrote.
‘Sam’s murder was a blessing. If the information I have is right … this will be bigger than World War 3.’
Naumenko had personally been targeted by Abdulrahim before the gangster was gunned down in his car.
No-one has been charged for his murder, amid fears the gunmen may have already fled overseas.
More to come