Trio of shooters in home attack that killed grandmother
Rachel Jackson and Alex Mitchell |
A grandmother has been killed in the home she had lived in for as little as two months in an “abhorrent” shooting that left the family property riddled with bullets.
The killer remained on the run on Tuesday, with authorities hunting for the person behind the overnight attack in Ambarvale on Sydney’s southwest outskirts.
Three people got out of a dark-coloured sedan and fired shots at a house on Dickens Rd on Monday night where the 65-year-old woman was hit, police said.
Emergency services were called to the property about 11pm and treated the woman, but she died at the scene.
Two other people in the home, a 21-year-old woman and a 34-year-old man, were not injured.
Police said the attack was targeted but were unclear if the dead 65-year-old, who was inside the house when the gunmen took aim, was their intended victim.
The occupants of the house, who authorities believed had lived there for six to eight weeks, were known to police.
Detective Superintendent Grant Healey said police had been unable to interview some distraught family members and they would give them more time to process the death.
“It’s abhorrent, somebody coming up to a house and putting shots off is totally reckless and the consequences are catastrophic,” he said.
“Some members of the family are speaking to us and helping us out, but it’s tragic … your mother and the grandmother to your children has been shot by cowards that stood out the front of the house.”
The force was confident it could rule out family violence as a motive.
Nearby resident Louise Hosar said she heard gunshots shortly after 10.30pm.
“Within 20 minutes I went to bed and my bedroom just lit up with the police lights … they didn’t have the sirens going, but there was a lot of police presence and ambulances up there,” she told AAP.
“I woke my house up to alert them that something was happening … it was very distressing to hear the family, and shocking to find out she was an elderly lady.”
Local officers and the homicide squad are investigating, with a number of police vehicles outside the property as authorities begin their probe.
Police inspected bullet holes on the stairs leading to the property’s front door and on the front wall of the house.
At least three bullet holes could be seen on the house, while around 10 yellow evidence markers were spotted at the taped-off road as police hunt for the killer.
They also crawled to look underneath a P-plated car parked in the property’s driveway.
Along with the two uninjured occupants, police say members of the public will be key to their investigation and ask witnesses to contact Crime Stoppers.
Ms Hosar, who has lived in the area for 18 years but did not know the dead woman, said the violence was “part of living on Dickens Rd”.
“Every few weeks there’s a lot of police presence,” she said.
“Dickens Rd always gets the negative (attention) but we do have some really nice people that live on Dickens Rd, and in Campbelltown in general.”
AAP
