Kiwi shot dead in crossfire
Two Australian men have been arrested in relation to the fatal shooting of a Kiwi man outside a boxing match in Melbourne.
Ben Togiai, 33, a Samoan-Kiwi from South Auckland, was believed to have been caught in the wrong place at the wrong time when he was shot dead outside the Melbourne Pavilion, in Kensington last Friday.
According to a report by The Age, two Melbourne-based men — Abdullah El Nasher and Mikhael Myko — were arrested by NSW Police in Sydney shortly before 10pm on Friday night.
Togiai had gone to the event with colleagues from the construction industry.
The father of a 3-year-old daughter died at the scene. Two other men were taken to hospital with gunshot wounds.
Togiai's family and friends have taken to social media to pay tribute.
His wife, Shae Mccoullough, said; “How am I supposed to say goodbye? How do I tell my little girl that daddy's not coming home?” she wrote.
“I'm so heartbroken and can't even begin to imagine how hard life is going to be without you!”
Mccoullough described how Togiai would no longer get to see their daughter, Alyssa, “grow, or see her on her first day of school, you won't be at any birthday parties or even get to walk her down the aisle”.
Mccoullough said Togiai was a “one of a kind and an awesome dad”.
Togiai grew up in O¯ta¯huhu and went to Fairburn Primary and O¯ta¯huhu Intermediate schools.
He moved to Melbourne as a young teenager, and more recently lived in Craigieburn.