Police are investigating another firearms incident outside Prahran’s notorious Love Machine nightclub, the latest in a string of violent and fatal events to plague the inner-city venue.
Armed Crime Squad detectives are examining the incident at Love Machine, after police were called to the Malvern Road venue about 2.25am on Sunday, following reports of a physical altercation between a group of people outside the club.
Prahran’s Love Machine nightclub, pictured after the 2019 shooting.Credit: Chris Hopkins
A firearm was discharged during the fight before those involved fled the scene, a police statement said. A spokeswoman said there were no injuries reported and the investigation remains ongoing.
The shooting is the third violent incident to unfold over consecutive weekends, after the club was the target of repeated violence by members of the Comanchero outlaw motorcycle gang. Police would not confirm if Comanchero members were involved in the latest incident, but were seen removing CCTV footage from the premises on Sunday morning.
Several bikies, including the gang’s former national sergeant-at-arms Tarek Zahed, were involved in a brawl with security staff outside the club on Sunday, July 27, which left three men in hospital with facial injuries. The following Friday night, Comanchero members again stormed the venue after another altercation, with a 32-year-old man treated by paramedics at the scene.
A 28-year-old man from Narre Warren was later arrested and charged over both incidents, and with possessing a controlled weapon. The venue’s management announced on social media that it would be closed on the Saturday night of that weekend, claiming it was “due to unexpected plumbing issues.”
A brawl outside Love Machine in July this year.
The club has been a magnet for serious violence. In April this year, 30-year-old father Ruka Carlson was stabbed to death on Chapel Street after reportedly being chased from Love Machine, following an altercation involving a gun at the premises.
The venue is most infamous for a fatal drive-by shooting in 2019. In that incident, security guard Aaron Khalid Osmani, 37, and patron Richard Arow, 28, were killed when Jacob Elliott fired shots from a 32-calibre assault rifle into the crowd outside. Three others were struck by bullets and another was injured trying to avoid the attack.
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