A feud between a senior Comancheros bikie and a former club leader is likely the crux of two brazen assassination attempts in Melbourne, police say.
Investigators believe the outlaw motorcycle gang's current national president, jailed Mick Murray, is fighting with a former leader, Jay Malkoun, and the bust up has filtered down to members aligned to each man.
The most recent is a daylight shooting at a Hampton Park tattoo parlour, where two hooded men stormed Nitro Ink before firing nine bullets into a 36-year-old Malvern man, reported to be Comancheros member Robert Ale.
Ale, who suffered life-threatening injuries but miraculously survived, was lying down getting a tattoo when he was shot about 1.15pm on February 22.
Detective Acting Senior Sergeant Paul Topham says police want to figure out how the men knew their victim would be there.
The pair arrived and fled in a stolen silver Audi, driven by a third man, which was later found burnt out.
Bullets penetrated nearby businesses, one piercing a wall mere centimetres from an office worker.
Police believe a shooting in Reservoir on August 8 last year is also linked to the infighting.
A gang member, a 33-year-old Tullamarine man, was injured after being shot six times when he was lured to a meeting, and a silver sedan used during the crime was found burnt out in Epping.
It's believed members aligned to Murray could be responsible for both attacks, because the men shot had fallen out with him, police say.
Malkoun is overseas, but police believe he remains a very influential figure.
"The animosity between these two members has been filtered down between members of the club...which is causing factions to form at a local level," Acting Sen Sgt Topham said.
The dispute is spread across chapters in Victoria, NSW and Canberra, with a brawl in Canberra also believed to be a battle between the opposing factions.
Police haven't been able to find a link between the shootings and the killing in Sydney of former national president Mahmoud "Mick" Hawi, whose funeral was held on the same day as the Hampton Park attack.
The tattoo parlour closed shortly after the shooting, because some of the artists did not want to return.
