Brooklyn: Gun charges for Omar Chaouk

A son of a slain Melbourne crime figure has been charged after shooting himself in the groin.

Police are not investigating if the injuries to Omar Chaouk, of Brooklyn, were caused by anyone else.

Chaouk’s wounds prevented him from appearing in a Melbourne court on Thursday after his arrest on Tuesday at Sunshine Hospital by members of the Santiago taskforce.

His lawyer Melinda Walker told Melbourne Magistrates’ Court her client had chosen not to appear from the Custody Centre because “he’s got some injuries which make it difficult for him to come up”.

Chaouk, 23, was treated under guard at the Royal Melbourne Hospital and later charged with offences that include being a prohibited person in possession of a firearm, having used a firearm and with robbing a man of $10,000 while armed with a .22 handgun.

The young man is the son of murdered crime patriarch Macchour Chaouk and the brother of Mohamed Ali Chaouk, who was shot dead during a police raid in 2005.

Prosecutor Michael Roper said Chaouk was charged on March 18 and asked magistrate Franz Holzert to remand him to June 25.

Ms Walker asked that a doctor’s report be included in papers filed with her client’s remand.