{"id":538053,"date":"2026-03-13T15:51:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-13T15:51:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/538053\/"},"modified":"2026-03-13T15:51:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T15:51:12","slug":"thousands-gather-at-mernda-railway-station-vigil-to-honour-aidan-becker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/538053\/","title":{"rendered":"Thousands gather at Mernda railway station vigil to honour Aidan Becker"},"content":{"rendered":"

The mother of Aidan Becker, a 22-year-old who died trying to protect a teenage boy last Friday, has spoken of her family’s deep pain during a packed community vigil for her son at a Melbourne railway station.<\/p>\n

Thousands gathered with candles to honour Mr Becker, who was killed at Mernda station a week ago when he was allegedly attacked by four males aged between 16 and 18.<\/p>\n

Mr Becker was trying to help a 14-year-old boy allegedly being robbed and assaulted in an attack involving a machete.<\/p>\n

\"Aidan<\/p>\n

Aidan Becker’s mother Natalie and his family thank the community. (ABC News)<\/p>\n

A huge crowd gathered at the station tonight, with Mr Becker’s family extending heartfelt thanks for the community’s support.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“We stand here tonight as a family broken,” Aidan’s mother, Natalie, said through tears.<\/p>\n

“I don’t know how we heal and I don’t know what tomorrow looks like, but I know that my beautiful boy would have done it all again in a heartbeat because that’s the boy he was.<\/p>\n

“And the only reason we are here and not curled up in a ball somewhere is because of each and every one of you.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A huge crowd gathered to honour Mr Becker, who was remembered as a big-hearted person who was always looking out for others. (ABC News: Leanne Wong)<\/p>\n

“We’ve read your letters, we’ve read your comments, we see the flowers every night and we thank you from the bottom of our hearts.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A North Melbourne AFL guernsey and jumpers from local clubs Mr Becker played at were on display at the community vigil. (ABC News)<\/p>\n

Ms Becker also thanked a man she said tried to save her son’s life before paramedics arrived, telling him his family loved him.<\/p>\n

“Those would have been the last words he heard,” she said.<\/p>\n

Some at the vigil wore blue and white in honour of Mr Becker’s favourite football team, North Melbourne.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A minute’s silence was held for Mr Becker. (ABC News)<\/p>\n

The crowd also held a minute’s silence for the young security guard, who was on his way home from The Alfred hospital at the time of the alleged attack.<\/p>\n

The family of the teenage boy Mr Becker was trying to help earlier this week said they were “deeply saddened by this heartbreaking loss”.<\/p>\n

“He [Mr Becker] showed extraordinary courage and compassion in risking his life to save our son,” the statement, released via Victoria Police, read.<\/p>\n

“Our family will carry his bravery and kindness in our hearts forever. We hold your family in our thoughts and prayers,” the family said.<\/p>\n

\"Thousands<\/p>\n

Organisers said the vigil was about unity and community. (ABC News: Leanne Wong)<\/p>\n

The four teenagers have been charged over Mr Becker’s death.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The mother of Aidan Becker, a 22-year-old who died trying to protect a teenage boy last Friday, has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":538054,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[266806,64,63,260823,266808,44,48586,106857,266807,20011],"class_list":["post-538053","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-aidan-becker","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-mernda","tag-mernda-station-attack","tag-news","tag-station","tag-train","tag-train-station-killing","tag-vigil"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/538053","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=538053"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/538053\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/538054"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=538053"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=538053"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=538053"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}