A Sudanese man who was hacked to death by a group of thugs with machetes in a crime that shocked Melbourne was linked to the city’s African gang war.
Timothy Leek, 24, died in hospital after being ambushed in his car by about 10 other African men outside the Marriott Waters Shopping Centre in Lyndhurst on Friday night, and his family described him as an “extraordinary individual” in a tribute on social media.
But Noticer News can reveal Leek, nicknamed Leekstrigga, had a criminal record and was affiliated with notorious southeast Melbourne-based Sudanese gang Next Gen Shooters (NGS), and an associated group of drill rappers had released a “diss” track aimed at their rivals just a day earlier.
The song Rsav Bop, released by music label Mullaaboyzz Entertainment, contains violent lyrics referencing gang attacks, including “stab his bro in front of his mum and kids”, and was promoted by Leek on his Instagram page.
Leek’s profile also contains gang reference “NEXTGEN” and coded tributes to three slain gang members, the most recent being LLP for Sudanese rapper Pal “Peezy” Bidong, 20, who was shot dead outside a Halloween party in North Melbourne in November last year, sparking fears of gang retaliation.
Bidong also appeared in a drill rap music video titled Spin Da Block glorifying gang shootings and stabbings, released by the same label on YouTube two days before his own violent death:
The other two dead gang members, nicknamed 2x and 4hundo, were killed in 2022 and 2023 respectively.
Leek was given a community corrections order in 2023 after pleading guilty to affray and intentionally causing injury for his role in a gang fight in Melbourne’s CBD in October 2022. Leek, who was armed with a knife, was stabbed in the chest by another Sudanese man, who also fatally stabbed Leek’s friend.
Those offences were committed while he was under another community corrections order for a gang fight involving knives in a public elevator, which came after he served a prison sentence for aggravated burglary and breaching an earlier community corrections order for yet another gang attack in public.
But Leek’s family said that his “kindness, generosity, and infectious sense of humour brought light and joy to the lives of many”, and their post announcing his death attracted dozens of comments from grieving family and friends.
Victoria Police are yet to make any arrests over the horrific machete killing, which unfolded in front of local families doing their evening shopping, and Bidong’s murder also remains unsolved.
Leek’s killing came just two days after the state banned machetes amid an African gang crime wave, including a machete attack in Footscray last month, an alleged machete murder the month before, and another the month before that.
African gang violence has plagued Melbourne for more than a decade, but “racism” complaints from community leaders and left-wing politicians after a spate of incident in 2018 resulted in Victoria Police no longer releasing offender nationality data and Australia’s corporate press refusing to use the term “African gangs”.
Header image: Left, right, Timothy Leek (Facebook, Instagram).
