{"id":153887,"date":"2025-09-19T07:43:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-19T07:43:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/153887\/"},"modified":"2025-09-19T07:43:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-19T07:43:07","slug":"seven-teenagers-charged-with-murder-after-stabbing-deaths-of-two-boys-in-melbourne-melbourne","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/153887\/","title":{"rendered":"Seven teenagers charged with murder after stabbing deaths of two boys in Melbourne | Melbourne"},"content":{"rendered":"

Seven teenagers have been charged with murder after the stabbing deaths of 15-year-old Dau Akueng and 12-year-old Chol Achiek in Cobblebank in Melbourne\u2019s<\/a> west earlier this month.<\/p>\n

The seven males, aged between 15 and 19, were arrested on Friday morning after raids on homes in Melbourne\u2019s north and west by homicide squad detectives. They were interviewed by police before charges were laid in the afternoon.<\/p>\n

A 19-year-old Thornhill man, a 16-year-old Sunbury boy, a 16-year-old Sydenham boy and a 15-year-old Hillside boy were charged with the murder of Dau.<\/p>\n

A 19-year-old Caroline Springs man, an 18-year-old Wollert man and a 16-year-old Sydenham boy were charged with the murder of Chol.<\/p>\n

The three adults fronted Melbourne magistrates court on Friday afternoon. They did not apply for bail and were remanded in custody to reappear in court on 12 December.<\/p>\n

The four teens were due to appear at a children\u2019s court.<\/p>\n

Dau and Chol were walking home from a basketball game on 6 September when they were allegedly attacked on separate streets in Cobblebank, in the city\u2019s west, by masked assailants armed with machetes and long-edged weapons.<\/p>\n

Emergency services responded to calls shortly before 8pm on the night following reports that two children had been fatally injured.<\/p>\n

They were located on adjacent streets, after members of the public rushed to help. Both children died at the scene.<\/p>\n

The assistant commissioner of crime command, Martin O\u2019Brien, on Friday said the pair\u2019s devastated families were grieving their loss and the things they would never see their children experience.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe word senseless has been used so many times already in relation to the deaths of Dau Akueng and Chol Achiek, because the reality is that it doesn\u2019t make sense,\u201d he said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cTwo children walking home after playing sport, who should have had decades of their lives ahead of them.\u201d<\/p>\n

O\u2019Brien acknowledged many people were \u201cfeeling shocked, frustrated and concerned\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cFinally, our thoughts are with the Akeung and Achiek families and we will continue to ensure all available support services remain in place at this difficult time,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Sign up: AU Breaking News email<\/a><\/p>\n

Chol\u2019s father, Chuti Ngong, described his son as a \u201clovely\u201d and \u201cpeaceful boy\u201d at a candlelight vigil last week.<\/p>\n

skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n

Sign up to Breaking News Australia<\/p>\n

Get the most important news as it breaks<\/p>\n

Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. If you do not have an account, we will create a guest account for you on theguardian.com<\/a> to send you this newsletter. You can complete full registration at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our Privacy Policy<\/a>. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy<\/a> and Terms of Service<\/a> apply.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe loved everybody \u2013 loved all the family, siblings, everybody,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Terry Koumides, who met Dau in 2020 through a youth basketball program, described him as \u201ca sweet kid\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was a contributor, he was well mannered,\u201d he said. \u201cHe was polite.\u201d<\/p>\n

Manny Hendrix, Dau\u2019s basketball coach, said he had dreams of playing for the NBA. \u201cBasketball was his life,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Since the deaths a \u201csignificant investigation\u201d by the homicide squad has been under way to \u201ccollect all available evidence\u201d, police said on Friday.<\/p>\n

Police had also increased patrols in Cobblebank as part of community reassurance efforts, and met with schools, council and community leaders.<\/p>\n

The investigation was ongoing, police said.<\/p>\n

Anyone with information was urged to call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or submit a confidential report online.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Seven teenagers have been charged with murder after the stabbing deaths of 15-year-old Dau Akueng and 12-year-old Chol…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":138277,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-153887","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153887","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=153887"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153887\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/138277"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=153887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=153887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=153887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}