Blood on their doorstep: Neighbourhood devastated by stabbed man’s death

On a humming Monday morning, the inner-northern suburb of Ascot Vale appeared to be in business as usual, with shopkeepers opening their doors and locals walking their dogs.

But on closer inspection, blood spattered the footpath outside businesses on Maribyrnong Road. And traumatised florist Lucia Lay burst into tears as she recounted hearing a fatal stabbing unfold outside her shop the previous day.

Homicide Squad detectives charged 18-year-old Alambs Mohmmed, of no fixed place of address, on Monday with intentionally causing injury, affray, escaping from custody. Police also charged him with theft and allege he stole alcohol worth $30 from a BWS store.

When Mohmmed faced Melbourne Magistrates’ Court, magistrate Vincenzo Caltabiano noted he was a young person in custody. The teen did not apply for bail and was ordered to return to court later this month.

Emergency services were called to reports of a man found with stab wounds near the intersection of Maribyrnong and Union roads about 3.45pm on Sunday.

A 40-year-old man from Ascot Vale was taken to hospital with life-threatening injuries, and he later died.

Police arrested Mohmmed in nearby Ascot Street about 4pm and are still searching for a second man who fled the scene.

Lay, who moved her business to Maribyrnong Road just weeks ago after a decade on Union Road, said she and other locals often heard people screaming and swearing on the footpath outside, but had been conditioned to pay them no mind.

“I kept asking [a customer], ‘Is it serious? Is it looking bad?’ And he goes, ‘I’m not sure yet because there’s a few cars blocking our view’,” Lay, who owns Ascot Vale Florist, told The Age.

“Then after that, [we saw] people carrying the man across [the road].”

On Sunday, when her shop was ordinarily closed, Lay and her husband had come in to clean and overheard the fight unfolding outside. She was not concerned at first, but she and two young customers who knocked on her door and asked to buy flowers later watched as it spun out of control.

Yelling turned into two offenders chasing a man up and down either side of Maribyrnong Road, and fighting him under a tree outside the nearby nail salon, Lay said.

One woman, whom Lay thought was a customer of the nail salon, came out to help and was left crying and shaking, she said. Lay’s husband also tried to intervene, while a girl cleaning windows outside the nearby IGA fled inside after she saw the commotion.

“[The alleged offenders] ran across us, where the [customer] was here, and I quickly grabbed the boy inside and then locked the door while they went past,” Lay said.

The florist quickly called police when she realised the fight was serious, and officers were on scene within minutes, suggesting others had also called.

Locals said the fight started at the tram stop on Maribyrnong Road, where the alleged victim – wearing casual clothes and a backpack – appeared to be waiting for the tram.

Bloodied rags and bandages were on the footpath outside a business across the road on Sunday after the alleged altercation, and blood spatter was still visible on Monday morning.

A cleaning crew arrived at the scene about 10.30am on Monday to wash away the rest of the blood.

A police officer told Lay after Sunday’s incident that the man was taken to hospital. “At nighttime, my husband said he died,” Lay said, sobbing.

Physiotherapist Monica Pacheco works at paediatric practice Panda for Kids, which was closed when the incident happened on its doorstep on Sunday.

While it was common for people to act out on the street, Pacheco had never seen it escalate to violence, she said.

“The fact that it did happen and so close to the clinic, we see kids here, so we get a lot of young families coming in and leaving, walking to the public transport. It’s a bit scary,” Pacheco said.

“I used to lock the door between patients and I stopped for a little while, but I guess it makes me feel like I need to start doing more of this kind of security measures again.”

David Thiessen, principal of Belle Property Ascot Vale on the corner of Maribyrnong and Union roads, said he’d lived in the area for 30 years, and found it always community-minded and family-oriented.

“This is just sad – very, very sad and disappointing,” he said.

Police have appealed for anyone who witnessed the stabbing, or has CCTV or dashcam footage to contact them anonymously at crimestoppersvic.com.au or on 1800 333 000.

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