A man allegedly gunned down partygoers outside a Melbourne nightclub in a revenge attack after his younger brother was kicked out.
Security guard Aaron Khalid Osmani, 37, and 28-year-old patron Richard Arow died when they were shot in the head outside the Love Machine nightclub in Prahran about 3am on April 14, 2019.
Three men – Jacob Elliott, Allan Fares, and Moussa Hamka – are standing trial in Victoria’s Supreme Court over the deadly shooting which also saw other patrons injured in the hail of bullets.
Footage of the attack aired in court showed a black SUV pull up next to the club in Little Chapel St and four shots fired into the crowd before it raced away. The two victims are seen falling to the ground.
Mr Elliott, 21, fired the fatal shots from the passenger seat of a stolen black Porsche, while his best mate, Mr Fares, was behind the wheel of the SUV, prosecutor Patrick Bourke QC told jurors on Tuesday.
The duo are both charged with murder and attempted murder in relation to other patrons who were shot but survived.
Their associate – Mr Hamka – was allegedly responsible for disposing of the murder weapon and torching a car. He is charged with assisting an offender.
The trio pleaded not guilty to the charges.
It’s alleged the shooting took place after Mr Elliott’s underage brother, Ali Maghnie, was kicked out of the club for poor behaviour.
“You’re all f—ed, you wait, I’m coming back,” the youth allegedly told security staff when he was kicked out just after 1am.
He then called his father – Nabil Maghnie – and his older brother Jacob Elliott.
Police tapped Mr Maghnie’s phone for unrelated reasons and in recorded conversations he told his son Ali to leave the club and come to his apartment at Docklands.
“Listen to me, I don’t want to go there now, I’m telling you this for a reason,” the man said to Ali in the recordings.
Mr Maghnie died in January 2020, the court was told.
A couple of hours after the teen was kicked out of the club, Mr Elliott and Mr Fares headed to the club and drove past the entrance four times before firing into the crowd, the court was told.
Their associate Mr Hamka later stashed the gun in his bedroom and torched a car, the court was told.
Prosecutors also told jurors there was “hostility” between the Maghnie family and the man who ran security at nightclub.
Defence barrister Julie Condon QC told the court there was no dispute Mr Elliott xjmtzywfired the gun from the Porsche, but said he had no “murderous intent”.
There was no dispute Mr Fares was the driver, but whether he had any motive, whether he knew what happened earlier or if he was just asked to drive his school friend were issues in the case, lawyer Campbell Thomson told jurors.
Mr Hamka’s lawyer said there were questions about whether the man knew the gun was used in the shooting, whether the other two were involved and if he stored it to stop them from being punished.
The trial continues in front of Justice Andrew Tinney.
