A 20-year-old man linked to an alleged Melbourne youth gang has walked free on bail after prosecutors withdrew a murder charge connected to the fatal New Year period drive-by shooting of a 16-year-old boy, the Victorian Supreme Court has confirmed.
The fatal incident that sparked the latest court proceedings unfolded shortly after midnight on January 3, when Ater “Eila” Good was gunned down on a street near Fitzroy Police Station, in Melbourne’s inner-northeast. The shooting was alleged by authorities to be a retaliatory attack, coming just days after a New Year’s Eve double machete stabbing in nearby Carlton.
According to police allegations, the violence is rooted in ongoing tension between two youth groups: the Fitzroy-based 6z gang, which Good was allegedly associated with, and the Heidelberg-based H-Town Boys. Police claim 6z affiliates carried out the Carlton stabbing against two H-Town Boys-linked individuals, leading to the retaliatory killing of Good. In the weeks after Good’s death, four young men alleged to have ties to H-Town Boys were formally charged with his murder.
On Friday, that case took a sudden turn when Omar Omar, 20, learned his murder charge had been withdrawn the previous day. In its place, prosecutors now accuse Omar of assisting the shooters after the fatal attack took place. Specific allegations against Omar include that he granted access to a car park in his apartment building for the vehicle used in the shooting, and that he has proven communications and photographed connections to other people linked to the alleged gang.
Crown prosecutor Nadia Kaddeche argued against bail for Omar, telling the court the prosecution could not yet outline the exact details of how Omar is alleged to have aided the killers following the shooting, due to the recent charge adjustment. She centered her opposition to release on Omar’s purported connections to H-Town Boys.
Presiding Justice Rita Incerti publicly rebuked the Office of Public Prosecutions for the lack of clarity in the case, noting the prosecution had failed to provide even a basic level of detail to let the court assess the strength of its current case. “It’s not satisfactory, what you’re telling this court is we can’t even give an indication,” Incerti said during the hearing.
Omar’s legal team pushed back strongly against the prosecution’s framing of the case. Felicity Gerry KC, Omar’s barrister, urged the court to treat the labeling of the H-Town Boys as a criminal gang with significant caution. She told the court the group is simply a collection of young people of Somali heritage who live in the Heidelberg area, arguing that labeling it a formal criminal gang is an overreach. “It’s a huge step, in our submission, to suggest he is associated with a gang … there are live questions whether there is a gang at all,” Gerry said. “The whole basis for the Crown’s opposition to bail is certainly speculative and mislabelling the young people of Heidelberg.”
Gerry added that evidence only shows Omar had casual contact with individuals linked to the alleged group, pointing out that her client has no prior criminal convictions, has a supportive family ready to monitor him, and already has a pending job offer with a local house painting business.
The judge noted that longstanding tit-for-tat violence between the two groups dates back to the 2022 death of Khalid Mahat, but ruled that at this stage of proceedings, it was impossible to judge whether the prosecution’s current case against Omar is strong or weak. Granting bail, Incerti remarked that she had seen many young people like Omar caught up in damaging circumstances through her decades on the bench, telling Omar: “This is your chance, your opportunity and only you are responsible for what you do.”
Following the ruling, Omar was seen embracing emotional family members as he left custody Friday afternoon. Three other co-accused – Shakib Abdul Kadir, Abdijalil Warsame and Sella Rabih – still face murder charges over Good’s killing. All four defendants are scheduled to next appear at the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court in November, and none have entered pleas to the charges against them.