{"id":845673,"date":"2026-08-06T14:14:13","date_gmt":"2026-08-06T14:14:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/845673\/"},"modified":"2026-08-06T14:14:13","modified_gmt":"2026-08-06T14:14:13","slug":"good-samaritan-dies-days-after-being-attacked-while-trying-to-stop-melbourne-shoplifters-melbourne","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/845673\/","title":{"rendered":"Good Samaritan dies days after being attacked while trying to stop Melbourne shoplifters | Melbourne"},"content":{"rendered":"

Council flags are flying at half-mast in honour of a good Samaritan who died days after he was allegedly attacked by shoplifting youths outside a Melbourne<\/a> shopping strip.<\/p>\n

Van Viet Truong was critically injured after he rushed to the aid of a fellow retail worker trying to stop the group stealing clothes in Sunshine in Melbourne\u2019s west on Saturday, police allege.<\/p>\n

The H\u1ed3ng H\u01b0ng Asian Grocery store owner was taken to hospital but died on Wednesday afternoon, police confirmed on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Three boys aged 12, 13 and 15 and two 14-year-old girls were charged with a series of assault-related offences including affray, violent disorder and intentionally causing serious injury.<\/p>\n

Detectives upgraded the 15-year-old\u2019s charges to include manslaughter on Thursday following Truong\u2019s death.<\/p>\n

Charges against the 13-year-old boy were earlier withdrawn.<\/p>\n

The four other youths were remanded to appear before a children\u2019s court at a later date.<\/p>\n

Floral tributes outside the Hampshire Road store, which has been a mainstay on the strip for more than two decades, were growing on Thursday afternoon as mourners stopped to pay their respects.<\/p>\n

A note on the shop\u2019s roller door said it would be closed until further notice due to an unexpected family emergency.<\/p>\n

The 60-year-old\u2019s death has devastated local traders including Julie Tran, whose Vietnamese restaurant, Thu\u1eadn An, is doors down from where the street scuffle unfolded.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was always really friendly to all the businesses. When we walked past his store he\u2019d always say \u2018hi\u2019 and smile,\u201d she told AAP.<\/p>\n

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\u201cHis wife and his mother-in-law were always there with him, it was the three of them constantly there running the store.\u201d<\/p>\n

Traders have long called for help from the council and state government in addressing rising antisocial behaviour, crime and mental health concerns.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThey could have made a change. It didn\u2019t have to take a person to die for them actually try to push for this further,\u201d Tran said.<\/p>\n

Since opening her restaurant 18 years ago, Tran said the shopping strip has become a hub for crime and antisocial behaviour.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re here to make a living. We shouldn\u2019t have to be on edge every time we go to work,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Crime in the Brimbank council area is at its highest rate in six years and is almost 9% higher than the Victorian average, recent Crime Statistics Agency figures show.<\/p>\n

The Laverton MP, Sarah Connolly, and the new police minister, Paul Edbrooke, met traders on Wednesday to hear traders\u2019 concerns.<\/p>\n

Truong was described as a pillar of the community, a generous supporter and a kind friend by Brimbank mayor Virginia Tachos.<\/p>\n

The council will continue to lobby the state government for a sustained increase in police numbers, Tachos said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Council flags are flying at half-mast in honour of a good Samaritan who died days after he was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":845674,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-845673","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\/845673","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=845673"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/845673\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/845674"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=845673"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=845673"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=845673"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}