Man jailed for 29 years for shooting outside boxing venue

A man who fired a volley of shots into a crowd outside a Melbourne boxing venue has been jailed for 29 years for murder.

Transcript

00:00 This case dates back to 2019 at a boxing event in the Melbourne suburb of Kensington.

00:07 This was a really big event with about a thousand people gathering.

00:10 And what happened was there were many tables at this event and essentially an argument

00:15 broke out between a group of people on one table and a group of people on another table.

00:20 Abdullah Al-Nasher was with a group of friends and basically this argument had been going

00:26 for some time.

00:27 After a bit of retaliation, they left the venue, armed themselves with guns and came

00:31 back.

00:32 They saw their rivals standing outside the boxing venue and then opened fire.

00:39 This incident was captured on dash cam footage and on CCTV and it was really quite a chaotic

00:44 scene as people fled for their lives.

00:48 One man was shot dead.

00:49 That was 33-year-old father Ben Tungiayi.

00:53 Another man was also shot next to him and another person I believe was shot inside the

00:58 venue.

00:59 So police charged several people over this.

01:01 Abdullah Al-Nasher was seen as the main culprit.

01:04 He fired five shots during that volley outside the court.

01:08 Today he was sentenced to 29 years for murder.

01:13 It was incredibly emotional scenes inside the courtroom and outside for the victim's

01:17 family who spoke to journalists afterwards.

01:20 We're just super grateful for people that have been involved, the justice system, the

01:28 informants, the prosecutors, we're just super grateful.

01:31 The witnesses who were able to come forward.

01:34 None of this would have happened without them and I think it's really important to understand

01:38 that no kind of justice will bring back my brother.

01:41 Christian, I understand it was a tense environment in the courtroom today.

01:46 Yes, it was.

01:49 There were extra security measures in place in court and that was, I presume, because

01:54 the killer's family decided to turn up to court today.

01:58 The victim's family was there too and they carried themselves with a lot of calmness

02:02 and composure and grace in the courtroom.

02:05 But the same can't be said for Abdullah Al-Nasher and his family.

02:08 Al-Nasher was laughing as he was brought into the courtroom and as the hearing ended and

02:12 he was being taken away, supporters from his group were yelling out in the courtroom and

02:17 were told to be quiet and outside court they were also declaring that he was innocent.

02:23 Al-Nasher had a long criminal history that led up to this event and in fact he'd faced

02:28 court one week before the shooting took place.

02:32 Judge Christopher Beale said this wasn't a murder that took place as a result of a split-second

02:37 decision.

02:38 It was something that would have been incredibly traumatising for those who saw what took place.

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