An ACT magistrate refused bail on Saturday for a 29-year-old man accused of shooting a teenage passenger during a drive-by confrontation in Canberra’s southern suburb of Conder.
Australian Federal Police said four teenagers were travelling in a red Ford Falcon along Abrahams Crescent and Beaumaris Street about 10 p.m. on Friday when they encountered a red Hyundai i30. The Hyundai’s driver allegedly followed the Falcon along Tom Roberts Avenue and fired two or three shots into the vehicle at the intersection of Box Hill Avenue and Tharwa Drive, seriously injuring a back-seat passenger.
Arrest in the bush
Officers established a crime scene in Conder and, about 90 minutes later, saw a man climb out of vegetation on Greaves Place and enter a waiting red Audi, police said. They arrested the man and searched the area but have not recovered the firearm.
The accused appeared in the ACT Magistrates Court on Saturday charged with using a firearm to endanger human life. The court heard he had pursued the Falcon before opening fire. Magistrate James Lawton denied bail, telling the hearing there was a risk the man could access the weapon while it remained missing. Police also said the defendant was subject to parole conditions at the time of the alleged shooting.
Appeal for witnesses
The injured teenager was taken to hospital; police have not released an updated condition. Investigators are asking anyone who drove in Conder, Banks or nearby suburbs around 10 p.m. Friday — particularly near Abrahams Crescent, Beaumaris Street, Tom Roberts Avenue, Box Hill Avenue, Tharwa Drive or Pockett Avenue — to contact Crime Stoppers if they saw either vehicle.
The case returns to court on 4 November. Until the gun is found and forensic work is complete, police will be under pressure to explain how a parolee allegedly obtained a weapon and targeted a car full of teenagers on residential streets. For Conder residents, the immediate concern is whether anyone else was involved in the Audi pickup or whether the Hyundai was linked to earlier disputes among the groups in the vehicles.
Broader context
Drive-by shootings are rare in the Australian Capital Territory, where gun laws are among the strictest in the country and most serious firearms offences carry long mandatory minimum sentences. The refusal of bail does not resolve the search for the weapon, but it keeps the accused under supervision while detectives trace ballistics, phone data and the red Audi’s movements after the arrest.
Families of the teenagers in the Falcon have not spoken publicly. Police have asked the community to report any discarded items or suspicious activity in the Greaves Place bushland corridor where the man was found. With the matter listed for a November hearing, the territory’s courts and parole authorities will also face questions about monitoring and whether Friday’s events amounted to a breach of release conditions before shots were fired.