🔴 UPDATE, Monday 10 August: Several hundred people rallied outside Sunshine Library on Sunday afternoon in the rain, demanding tougher bail laws and more police on the beat after Mr Truong's death. A petition calling for the bail decisions to be reconsidered has passed 22,000 signatures. Opposition leader Jess Wilson attended. Anthony Carbines, who held the police portfolio until Ben Carroll's reshuffle on 4 August, called the death an absolute tragedy and said bail "is a matter for the courts". Rebel News reported that speakers took aim at the government, police and judiciary, and told the crowd to take their anger to the ballot box in November. Our full report on the rally is here.
Van Viet Truong, 60, has died in hospital after a group of children aged between 12 and 15 allegedly bashed him in the street in Sunshine, in Melbourne's west, seven weeks after the Victorian Labor government published a media release headlined "Crime Is Down, Youth Offending Is Down".
Mr Truong ran the Hong Hung Asian grocer on Hampshire Road. About 2pm on Saturday, 1 August, police allege a group of children fled a nearby store with stolen goods. A neighbouring trader tried to stop them, a scuffle spilled into the street, and Mr Truong stepped in to help.
Police allege Mr Truong was struck in the head multiple times before he hit the ground. CCTV footage published by News24 captures the attack. He was taken to hospital in a critical condition and died on Wednesday night, four days after he stepped in.
On Thursday police upgraded the charges against a boy aged 15, who now faces manslaughter on top of affray, violent disorder, intentionally causing serious injury and intentionally causing injury.
Three other children are charged with the same four offences: a boy aged 12 from Brimbank, a girl aged 14 from Banyule and a girl aged 14 from Brimbank. Police withdrew charges against a boy aged 13 after further investigation. None of them can be identified by law, and none of the allegations has been tested in court.
On Friday, both girls walked free on bail. Police did not oppose their release, having deemed the pair not an unacceptable risk to community safety, AAP reported, and the magistrate accepted the girls' ages and lack of criminal history as compelling reasons. The boy aged 12 was already out on release, while the boy aged 15 stayed in custody and made no application for bail.
The children had spent the days since Sunday on remand, and Mr Truong died while they were still in custody.
Mr Truong's shop is closed behind a handwritten sign.
"Due to an unexpected family emergency, our shop will be temporarily closed until further notice. Thank you for your kindness and continued support."
Ben Carroll met the family. His government's crime boast is seven weeks old
Premier Ben Carroll met Mr Truong's family on Thursday, with his police minister Paul Edbrooke, as tributes piled up outside the shop, and called the death senseless. The sympathy will be welcome, but his government's own record is harder to explain away.
On 18 June the Premier's office declared crime down and youth offending down, claiming the biggest drop in alleged youth offending since before the pandemic.
"Crime has dropped across Victoria thanks to Labor's tough laws."
The release quoted then police minister Anthony Carbines and attorney general Sonya Kilkenny, and it went out while Jacinta Allan was still premier, less than six weeks before she resigned and handed the job to Carroll. The laws it credits are the same ones that were in force when Mr Truong was attacked.
Melbourne has the highest crime rate in Victoria and it's still climbing
The Crime Statistics Agency's key figures for the year to 31 March 2026 show what the boast leaves out.
- Offences recorded fell just 0.2%, from 626,950 to 625,426, a difference of 1,524 offences across the whole state.
- The City of Melbourne records the highest offence rate of any council area in the state, 23,303.7 offences per 100,000 residents, and that rate rose 1.5% in the year Labor claimed as a win.
- Alleged offender incidents jumped 8.6% to 195,343.
- The ABC reported adult crime rose about 10% while youth crime fell 6%.
- More than half of all carjackings and home invasions in Victoria were committed by youth offenders, the ABC reported in March.
A capital city clocking more than 23,000 offences per 100,000 residents doesn't need anyone to invent a nickname for it. Gotham City suggests itself.
News24 reported stores across Victoria are bearing the brunt of rising retail crime, with recent data showing the state recorded the largest increase in threats, violent incidents and weapon related offences in the country. One reader's comment under the footage summed up the public mood.
"Can't say warning signs weren't there; youth crime is out of control."
Warren Pickering wants 40 empty police stations filled. The riot squad went to Hawthorn
One Nation published its law and order plan on 5 August, as Mr Truong lay dying in hospital.
"Australians are sick of feeling unsafe. Gangs on our streets, home invasions, car theft on the rise, violent crime in family suburbs that used to be peaceful."
The party wants what it calls real jail time for violent offenders and an end to the revolving door justice system. Pauline Hanson has gone further, proposing an independent judges board with the power to remove Victorian judges over sentences the public won't wear.
Victorian leader Warren Pickering has put a number on it, pledging to fill the state's 40 unmanned police stations and keep a reserve force on hand for times of increased activity.
Melbourne knows its police can turn out in force when they're told to. Two days after the Hampshire Road attack, riot police and mounted officers were deployed to hold back a far left mob outside One Nation's campaign dinner in Hawthorn, and Hanson needed a police escort to get into the building. None of that force was anywhere near Hampshire Road on Saturday afternoon.
Victorians have also seen how the system handles children who bash people. In July, the first boy to admit his part in the machete gang bashing of Lucas Jeisman left court with no conviction recorded.
All of it now runs through November's state election. One Nation is polling 27% in Victoria and has a full upper house ticket in the field, while Labor defends a government almost 12 years old.
Mr Truong was remembered this week as a good Samaritan who died stepping in for a fellow trader. His shop is still shut, and the election is in November.
