Man gunned down on Glenroy shopping strip in ‘targeted attack’

Homicide squad detectives are combing an area in Melbourne’s north after a man was shot dead outside a strip of shops in the early hours of Good Friday.

Police said the man was found injured on Justin Avenue in Glenroy shortly after 4.30am and died at the scene.

“It appears at this stage to be a targeted attack,” the homicide squad’s Detective Inspector Dean Thomas said at a press conference on Friday morning.

A large crime scene has been established, centred around a red Hyundai i30 sedan parked at a small shopping strip opposite a playground in a small reserve. A nearby resident’s CCTV footage, seen by The Age, captured the sound of several bangs and a car speeding past late at night.

Thomas said the victim was known to police and had a criminal history but did not believe he was linked to the state’s escalating underground war over the illegal tobacco trade or any other organised crime.

The tobacco turf battle has been linked to more than 60 arson attacks, two murders and several shootings.

“There is nothing at this stage to suggest any connection to the tobacco incidents that have been occurring – nothing,” Thomas said.

One resident reported hearing a loud bang about 4.20am, but only discovered a man had died upon reading media reports hours later.