Western Australia Police took five people into custody after a nine-hour search that ended at a property in Moonyoonooka, east of Geraldton, following an early-morning shooting that left a 32-year-old man with a gunshot wound to the leg on a rural road.
Police said the victim was shot about 1 a.m. on Wednesday. He was taken to Geraldton Hospital with injuries police described as not life-threatening. Investigators believe at least three people were involved in the incident and that those responsible left the scene in a vehicle, triggering a major response across the Mid West region.
TRG flown in from Perth
Tactical Response Group officers were flown from Perth to assist local detectives and general-duties police. Acting Commander Steve Huggett told reporters that TRG personnel surrounded a Moonyoonooka home and repeatedly called for occupants to exit with their hands raised before taking five people into custody for questioning.
Huggett said police were treating the weapon as a genuine firearm even though it had not been recovered by mid-morning. The police dog squad joined the search of nearby bush and the property in an effort to locate the gun.
Community told to stay clear
Residents near the search area reported a heavy police presence, with officers clearing gardens and asking neighbors to leave while the tactical operation unfolded. Huggett said police did not believe there was a broader risk to the community once the five people were in custody, but stressed that inquiries were continuing.
No charges had been laid as of Wednesday morning. Police have not publicly identified the people in custody or detailed relationships between them and the victim. It is common in Western Australia for detectives to hold people for interview under police investigation powers before deciding on charges related to firearms offences, grievous bodily harm, or conspiracy.
Rural roads, fast response
Shootings on unlit farm tracks around Geraldton present logistical challenges: long distances between properties, limited CCTV, and vehicles that can disappear into bush tracks within minutes. The nine-hour gap between the shooting and the Moonyoonooka detentions suggests police received intelligence or forensic leads that narrowed the search to a specific household.
Geraldton Hospital, the main referral centre for the Mid West, regularly handles trauma cases from farming accidents and road crashes; gunshot patients are comparatively rare but trigger automatic notifications to major-crime detectives when police treat the wound as non-accidental.
What police will do next
Detectives will seek to match ballistics if the firearm is found, trace the vehicle used to flee the scene, and interview the five people in custody to determine who fired the shot and why. Huggett’s comment that at least three people were involved hints that prosecutors could eventually pursue joint-enterprise theories if evidence shows multiple participants aided the person who fired.
For now, the confirmed facts are limited to a wounded man on a rural road, a lengthy manhunt, and five people in custody while Western Australia Police continue a firearms investigation in a region unaccustomed to headline-grabbing gun crime.