By Rachel Clayton

Copyright abc

Four-and-a-half years ago, Kwar Ater had a message for Australia: no-one was born bad.

The then 21-year-old South Sudanese-Australian man was engaged with a group in Melbourne’s west focused on getting young people out of crime.

Tensions around youth offending were high. He wanted to lower the temperature.

“These kids aren’t born bad. They fall into the wrong crowd for survival. For friendship,” Mr Ater told the ABC in 2021.

He spoke about the importance of schools in keeping kids engaged and out of trouble, and the hurt of being racially profiled.

He had a job and seemed excited about the future.

But three weeks ago, Mr Ater became another victim of violence on the streets of Melbourne.

The 26-year-old was standing outside an apartment building on Elizabeth Street, near the middle of Melbourne’s CBD, when he was fatally shot.

Two men have been charged with murder over his September 7 death.

His family are still in shock and grief, struggling to understand why.

“He is the glue that holds people together. So I feel like it just really sucks. His life was going so well,” his sister, Sara Ater, told the ABC.

“We all had plans to go to Africa at the end of the year to go see our grandma’s grave.

“So they have taken that away from him and away from us … it really hurts.”

Lives lost, ‘families ruined’

Mr Ater’s death comes amid a particularly violent period in Melbourne.

Just hours before the shooting, two children — 12-year-old Chol Achiek and 15-year-old Dau Akueng — were killed with machetes almost immediately after getting off a bus in the city’s western outskirts. They were both returning home after playing basketball.

Their ages and lack of any link to criminal activity deeply shocked the community.

A week earlier, there were two fatal shootings of men in their 20s in Ivanhoe, in Melbourne’s north-east, and Derrimut in the city’s west.

Earlier this month, Victoria Police Assistant Commissioner Martin O’Brien said that “too many lives have already been lost and families ruined”.

“The impacts of these incidents are felt right through our communities — from the families who lose a loved one, through to the loss of safety that many people feel as a result, even when they don’t know those involved,” he said in a statement.

Charges dropped after 313 days behind bars

When Mr Ater spoke to the ABC in 2021, he was studying at university, playing for his local footy club and setting up his own digital marketing business.

Court records show he had had little interaction with the criminal justice system since turning 18 — except for driving offences — and had not been convicted of any crime.

But that changed in October 2022.

On Bourke Street, in Melbourne’s CBD, Mr Ater was among a small group of people who came to the aid of an acquaintance who had been set upon by three people in an unprovoked attack, a court later heard.

In the resulting brawl, 18-year-old Kose Kose — who was part of the aggressor group — was stabbed and killed.

Supreme Court judge Rita Incerti later determined that Mr Ater threw two punches over 4 minutes, was not armed, and stepped away from the fighting once he realised Mr Kose had been stabbed.

She found he was not an initial aggressor, there was no pre-planning and “it seems to me you were trying to help someone who was being attacked”.

CCTV showed Mr Ater’s role in the brawl was minimal — yet he was remorseful over his actions, the judge found.

However, police initially charged Mr Ater with Mr Kose’s murder. He was held on remand in prison for 313 days, before that charge was dropped.

Last year, Mr Ater was sentenced to a six-month community corrections order for affray in relation to the incident.

“At the end they find that [he was] not related to the murder,” his father, Chol Ater, told the ABC two weeks ago.

Now, of the seven men involved in the fight that night, three are dead — Mr Kose, Mr Ater and another man, Timothy Leek.

More than a great footballer

Mr Ater’s death has rocked members of Point Cook’s South Sudanese community.

Eli Muse ran a youth program in the area and was shocked when he found out about the shooting. He said Mr Ater was the last person he would expect to have been in such a situation.

“This was not the person I was expecting you would tell me would get killed,” Mr Muse said.

He described Mr Ater as a shy and gentle person who was always a keen listener.

“He just looked like someone who was looking for something, like he wanted to be part of something,” Mr Muse said.

Since his release, Mr Ater had been back playing football with the Point Cook Central Sporting Club, where he had played since he was 13.

Members of the club provided glowing references to the court last year about how he was a fantastic mentor for junior players at the club.

The club held a candlelight vigil following his death, and paid tribute to him on social media.

“Kwar Ater was one of a kind, always giving his time to the juniors, lifting his teammates, and bringing warmth and kindness wherever he went,” a statement on Facebook said.

“He wasn’t just a great footballer, he was an even better person and a true mate to so many at our club.

“We are absolutely shattered and he will be deeply missed by every single one of us at Point Cook Centrals.”

Family wants answers

For Sara Ater, the death of her brother has meant losing her best friend and her go-to contact in times of emergency.

She remembered how Mr Ater came to her rescue late one night shortly before his death.

It was close to midnight, she said, when she was returning home from work and her tyre popped in the middle of the road. She panicked, and dialled his number.

“He picked up straight away, rushed to me, moved the car — because literally the car was on the road and I was so scared,” she said.

“I’m like, ‘Who’s going to do that for me if I’m in that situation ever again?'”

Now the Ater family want to know what led up to their beloved son’s death.

“We’re still waiting for the answer,” Chol Ater said.