Cranbourne East shooting: Chilling CCTV of an innocent man shot while trying to protect his daughter
- Father shot while trying to protect daughter
- She thinks a man followed her home at midnight
A father is in a coma after being shot by a man he thought was following his daughter late at night.
Blessing Valla, 21, called her father around 12:25 a.m. on Monday and said she thought an unknown man in a white station wagon was following her car in Melbourne’s southeast, police said.
Victor Valla, 58, told his daughter to go home to Cranbourne East, where he waited for her at reception.
When she pulled up to the house five minutes later, the station wagon stopped as well.
Mr. Valla walked up to the car and got into a fight with the driver.
The man got out of the vehicle, pushed Mr. Valla and then pulled out a firearm and shot him in the abdomen.
He then fled while neighbors came to his aid.
Blessing stayed with her father until he was rushed to the hospital. His condition is still critical, but stable.
Victor Valla, 58, reportedly tried to protect his daughter when he was shot in the stomach
Blessing Valla, 21, was driving home at midnight when she saw a car pull up behind her
“She said, ‘Daddy, Daddy, don’t go.’ My daughter was left holding her father’s hand,” Mr Valla’s ex-wife, Cecilia, told reporters.
‘She [told me]”Dad almost lost his life for me,” it’s insane, it was a young boy with the gun.
It has been reported that Mr Valla has lost a kidney and will undergo surgery on Tuesday.
Police are treating the incident as a random attack.
No link has been established between Mr Valla or his daughter and the gunman, who remains at large.
“For a man to come and protect his daughter like that, it’s a terrible thing to be shot in the street,” Detective Inspector Mick Daly told reporters on Monday.
The shooting was captured on CCTV before the gunmen fled the scene in the white station wagon
‘We don’t know why she was targeted and why the perpetrator shot the father.
“It’s very concerning. Firearms in the community are a concern.”
Detectives are busy investigating the area. On Monday afternoon they viewed camera footage and spoke to locals.
The police would also like to get in touch with people in the area who may have camera or dashcam footage.