Des Moran shot dead in Melbourne street

Melbourne's gangland war has reignited with the murder of Desmond "Tuppence" Moran
in the most audacious killing in its bloody history.
The brother of Lewis Moran and uncle to Jason and Mark was shot several times by two
masked gunmen in a cafe crowded with lunchtime shoppers near his Ascot Vale home on
Monday.
All four Morans have been murdered in a series of underworld killings that stretch
over more than a decade and have now reached an unofficial tally of 26 deaths.
Police say they are searching for two men, both of whom are believed to have opened
fire on Mr Moran as he was leaving the Ascot Pasta and Deli Cafe in the middle of
the busy Union Road shopping strip.
Mr Moran, 60, visited the cafe almost daily.
Within 15 minutes of the shooting, Lewis Moran's widow Judy Moran was at the scene.
Eyewitness Han Carkeek said Ms Moran, who was not believed to be on good terms with
her brother-in-law, was screaming "Dessy, Dessy" when she saw his body slumped in
the doorway of the cafe.
More than seven hours later, a coroner's van finally arrived to remove the body.
News of the murder travelled swiftly through Melbourne's underworld with gangland
identity Mick Gatto, who is overseas on business, confirming Mr Moran as the victim
within an hour of the shooting.
"Someone called me this morning and told me he had been shot a number of times and
was dead," Mr Gatto told AAP.
Mr Carkeek said he heard four shots before seeing Mr Moran fall to the ground in the
doorway of the cafe.
"I saw a guy walking out of the shop and falling to the ground," Mr Carkeek told AAP.
"This guy (the shooter) ran off and I heard a car's tyres screech as it drove away."
Homicide squad Detective Inspector Steve Clarke confirmed two gunmen were being hunted.
"I believed that both men shot at the deceased," Det Insp Clarke told reporters.
He said several spent cartridges were found at the scene.
"They escaped the immediate scene on foot and were seen getting into a dark blue or
green car which was seen leaving the scene along Union Road in a northerly
direction."
The homicide squad conducted the initial investigation which is likely to be handed
over to the Purana gangland taskforce.
Mr Moran's killing is the first underworld assassination since 2006 when lawyer
Mario Condello was shot dead in the driveway of his suburban home.
It comes three months after a botched murder attempt when a masked man fired a shot
through the windscreen of Mr Moran's car.
Mr Moran, who was jailed on drugs charges in 1985, said at the time of the failed
attempt in March he had no enemies but suggested he recognised the would-be
assassin, whom he described as "some mongrel in-bred albino".
Maurice Moschini, from the nearby Maddison real estate agency, said he heard about
six shots fired around noon on Monday.
"I thought it was gunfire - at least half a dozen shots," he said.
"The thing that's most shocked me was that the street was full of young families out
shopping - there are a lot of shaken people walking around."
Several doors down, Union Deli and Cafe owner Anne Boland said the first she knew of
the shooting was when a customer ran in.
She said within minutes people knew it was Dessy Moran.
"Everybody knew Dessy," Ms Boland said.
"He was just one of our locals. He would have coffee outside that deli every day.
"We knew his name, we knew his family history, but he was just one of our locals."
Ms Boland said Mr Moran was liked on the Union Road shopping strip, "because nothing
ever happened, he was just one of the locals".
She said this was the first trouble on Union Road which had long been a stamping
ground of the Moran family, which has now lost four men to murder.
Lewis Moran, 58, was gunned down by two men in the front bar of the Brunswick Club
in March 2004.
His son Jason, 36, was shot while in a van at a children's football clinic alongside
associate Pasquale Barbaro, who was also fatally shot, while five children sat in
the back seat in June 2003.
Nine years ago to the day, Jason's half-brother and Lewis's stepson Mark Moran, 36,
was shot dead after getting out of his car outside his home.
Gangland rival Carl Williams is serving life sentences after pleading guilty to the
murders of Lewis and Jason Moran.
Charges against Williams over Mark Moran's murder did not proceed.