{"id":786496,"date":"2026-07-08T07:47:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-08T07:47:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/786496\/"},"modified":"2026-07-08T07:47:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-08T07:47:11","slug":"narre-warren-south-brothers-charged-with-murder-after-bashing-death-near-school","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/786496\/","title":{"rendered":"Narre Warren South: Brothers charged with murder after bashing death near school"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Two brothers accused of a fatal assault outside a school during pick-up which left a man dead have had their charges upgraded to murder.<\/p>\n<p>Liam Robert Harnett, 22, and Connor Edmund Harnett, 21, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nine.com.au\/australia-news\/vic\/man-dies-after-alleged-assault-in-front-of-primary-school-students-in-melbourne-s-south-east-20260619-p608ce.html\" class=\"sc-jNzrEP eIMCEl\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">allegedly assaulted Andre Szep<\/a> metres from Strathaird Primary School at Narre Warren South, in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nine.com.au\/topic\/melbourne-ch7\" class=\"sc-jNzrEP eIMCEl\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Melbourne\u2019s<\/a> outer south-east, on June 12.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/774696477aa9492a78a9f69f11bf20add8619443b36b7bd130f7b519fa310391.jpeg\"  width=\"100%\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"_0b53bae146db0b62 _7475dd3391ee1518\" style=\"--text-color:var(--color-text-secondary)\">A floral tribute was laid at the reserve where the assault took place.\u00a09News<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nine.com.au\/topic\/nsw-police-jdi\" class=\"sc-jNzrEP eIMCEl\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Police<\/a> believe the attack occurred at a reserve near the school in the afternoon, shortly before students were due to leave for the day.<\/p>\n<p>Szep, 63, from Clyde North, was rushed to hospital in a critical condition, but died six days later.<\/p>\n<p>The brothers were initially charged with recklessly cause serious injury, but on Wednesday, appearing separately via video link in Melbourne Magistrates <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nine.com.au\/topic\/courts-hn7\" class=\"sc-jNzrEP eIMCEl\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Court<\/a>, those charges were upgraded to murder.<\/p>\n<p>Police believe the parties involved were known to each other.<\/p>\n<p>The public prosecutor told the court detectives were still working through DNA and forensic evidence, which was expected to take three months, waiting on post-mortem results and additional physical evidence was still outstanding.<\/p>\n<p>Several parents and students witnessed the incident and its aftermath, with one saying his priority was making sure his son was safe and did not become a witness to the event.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI shielded my son straight away. I didn\u2019t want him to see anything,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Jackie Mashiter had passed the reserve on her way to pick up her granddaughter from school when she saw a man on the ground surrounded by several people but did not initially realise what had happened.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/eeb6e694dd188a81632afc475ad7bf52fca7834e99105d1182d8e7970295e882.jpeg\"  width=\"100%\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"_0b53bae146db0b62 _7475dd3391ee1518\" style=\"--text-color:var(--color-text-secondary)\">The reserve where the man received his injuries backs onto Strathaird Primary School.\u00a0Strathaird Primary School<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI just saw him laying down and I thought he was actually just resting and waiting for his kids to come out,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>The reserve is metres from the school grounds and a children\u2019s centre and is regularly used by families, dog walkers and local residents.<\/p>\n<p>The brothers were remanded in custody and will next return to court for a committal mention on November 11.<\/p>\n<p>AAP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two brothers accused of a fatal assault outside a school during pick-up which left a man dead have&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":786497,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-786496","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/786496","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=786496"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/786496\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/786497"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=786496"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=786496"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=786496"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}