A car filmed leaving the scene of a shooting at a Brunswick East pizza store. Photo: Supplied Victoria Police
An escalating turf war with a rival pizza chain backed by underworld figures is believed to be behind a spate of shootings targeting the family-run Woodstock pizza franchise.
Victoria Police has not commented on a motive for the four attacks, but the Armed Crime Taskforce today released CCTV footage of two of the shootings in Brunswick East and Essendon.
The moves comes after the windows of Woodstock's Essendon outlet was peppered with bullets in a late night attack on February 3, which is the fourth time a restaurant run by famed pizza-makers the Cannata family has been shot up in recent months.
A vehicle leaving the scene of the Brunswick East shooting. Photo: Supplied Victoria Police
On October 30, Woodstock restaurants in Fitzroy North, Brunswick East and Essendon – which was then under construction – were sprayed with gunfire one after the other in a highly-unusual triple drive-by shooting.
The CCTV footage shows that two vehicles, a silver Toyota Hilux and a white 2005-model Ford Falcon, were used in the drive-by shooting of the outlet on Lygon Street, Brunswick East.
A second video, taken earlier this month, shows two men running down Raleigh Street in hoodies, one of whom fired a pistol into the windows of the restaurant.
A security camera image of a man running after a pizza store in Brunswick East was fired on. Photo: Supplied Victoria Police
The Armed Crime Taskforce has so far made no arrests and declined to comment on the investigation.
But police sources say the Woodstock shootings are part of a campaign of intimidation being waged by a competing pizza chain backed by underworld figures. Fairfax has chosen not to identify the operator for legal reasons.
The Cannata family opened their first restaurant in Fitzroy North in the 1990s and then expanded into Brunswick East in 2012 and Essendon earlier this year.
Tony Cannata
No one has yet been injured in the four attacks, which have all been launched after business hours.
But the latest shooting in Essendon has outraged some residents, who fear it is only a matter of time before someone in the neighbourhood is hurt or killed if the turf war continues.
"There are houses directly across the road [from Woodstock]. There's a kindergarten a few doors down the street. The shootings might be happening when the place is closed but that doesn't mean no one is around," a local said.
Concern that the unsolved Woodstock shootings were becoming a public safety hazard has led one local to demand action from the council, which has acknowledged "discussing the (public safety) issue" with police.
"The complainant demanded that council take action to shut down the restaurant involved in the shooting," Moonee Valley council chief executive Neville Smith said.
"We strongly encouraged him to contact Victoria Police about this matter, as local government does not have the power or jurisdiction to get involved in a criminal act."
Award-winning restaurateur Tony Cannata refused to comment on why his family's restaurants had been targeted in four separate attacks. "Police are investigating so I've got nothing to say," he said.
Fairfax understands that Tony Khoury, brother of underworld figure John Khoury and a close mate of Mick Gatto, was formerly a silent partner in the Brunswick East outlet. But that business relationship, which has been denied by the Khoury family, is believed to have ended before the October shootings.
cvedelago@theage.com.au
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