A distraught community has vowed to use the memory of a slain good Samaritan as motivation to demand tougher laws to combat youth crime.
In drizzling rain on Sunday afternoon, several hundred people rallied outside Sunshine Library in Melbourne’s west after the death of local grocery store owner Van Viet Truong.
The 60-year-old died in hospital after he tried to help a fellow retail worker and was allegedly set upon by a group of youths.
A moment of silence was observed for Mr Truong at Sunday’s rally, organised by a Vietnamese mothers’ group.
Truganina business owner Kien Huynh remembered the shop owner as a nice, funny man he would interact with on his family’s regular shopping trips to Sunshine.
“Where he (allegedly) got brutally hit … my family, nearly every week, sits there and has a banh mi,” he told the crowd.
“If we were there on that day, the man who got struck would have been me because I have to protect my daughters.”
The Hong Hung Asian Grocery store owner had potentially “sacrificed” his life for a bigger cause, Mr Huynh said.
“He will not die for nothing. We need change,” he said.
A “distraught” man, Kevin, who did not give his surname, told the crowd to “never forget” Mr Truong’s name.
“I remember him behind that counter as anyone else would,” he said.
“He could have been my uncle, my grandfather, my father.”
The largely Vietnamese-Australian crowd chanted calls for stronger laws, while many speakers expressed anger towards the state government, courts and police.
Brimbank Maribyrnong Interfaith Network chair Bharat Palta was among those to lay flowers to a growing pile outside Mr Truong’s Hampshire Road store.
“With the amount of youth crime that’s happening, people are fed up,” he told AAP.
“People are just sick and tired of it … I have been working here for yonks, this has never happened.”
Two girls allegedly involved in the deadly attack, both aged 14, were granted bail in a children’s court on Friday.
Two boys, aged 12 and 13, appeared in the court while already on community release.
A fifth youth, a boy aged 15, who has been charged with Mr Truong’s manslaughter, appeared via video link from custody and did not apply for bail.
When asked if the youths’ releases demonstrated a problem with the justice system, Police Minister Anthony Carbines said it was a matter for the courts.
“It’s an absolute tragedy what has happened in the west,” he told reporters.
“The people of the west are tired of their safety being compromised and we should give thanks for the generosity and the bravery of people who have stepped forward to help others.”
Opposition Leader Jess Wilson, who planned to attend Sunday’s event, earlier expressed sympathy for Mr Truong’s family.
“People are really, really frustrated and angry that we are seeing this violence on our streets day in, day out, and now someone has lost their life,” she said.
“And we’ve seen that the young offenders involved in the incident … be out on bail. Victorians have had enough.”
A petition demanding justice for Mr Truong and calling for the judicial system to reconsider granting the accused offenders bail has attracted more than 22,000 signatures.
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