news, crime

A woman is in hospital with a gunshot wound to the shoulder after a bikie-related drive-by shooting in Richardson in the early hours of Monday morning. Police said the home had been targeted in an attack on members of the Nomads outlaw motorcycle gang. Three people were inside the suburban home when the bullets struck. The victim was not a member of the gang but is reportedly related to members of the Nomads. Detective Superintendent Scott Moller, in charge of ACT's criminal investigations, confirmed that five shots had been fired. "At least three men fired on the house so, yes, it is a drive-by shooting incident," he said. The woman is undergoing treatment with injuries described as "not critical". She was transported to hospital by ACT Ambulance. Superintendent Moller described this attack as a worrying development. "It is a conflict between gangs," he said. "All these incidents are worrying and that's why we are committed to pressing on with this investigation and seeing every avenue through to the end." He would not say at this time whether this drive-by shooting was linked to recent drive-by shooting incidents, although the modus operandi was clearly a familiar one to Canberra residents. Bullets were fired at a two-storey house in Harrington Circuit, Kambah on February 4, and three vehicles were set on fire outside the house. Police confirmed that people living in the Kambah house had "connections" to outlaw motorcycle gangs. Last year bikie gangs were responsible for multiple drive-by shootings and targeted attacks across Canberra, including one on a Calwell residence in which bullets were fired into the home and cars set alight. A man was shot in the hand during the Calwell attack, although a woman and small child living in the suburban home were unharmed. Taskforce Nemesis, the police specialist team dedicated to investigating bikie gangs in Canberra, was increased in size last year after the spate of attacks, and was given a specific funding boost. The taskforce now includes separate proactive and reactive teams, and an intelligence-gathering capability. While the ACT government provided more powers to police last year, it has stopped short of matching the powerful anti-consorting laws adopted by the Queensland and NSW governments, and which the Liberal opposition and the federal police union actively support. Anti-consorting laws have been used by the NSW anti-gangs team, Strike Force Raptor, to effectively target and disrupt outlaw motorcycle gang activity in that state. Since the introduction of the Queensland and NSW legislation, the number of outlaw motorcycle gangs active within the ACT has jumped from one, the Rebels, to four and now includes the Comancheros, the Nomads and most recently, the European-based Satudarah. The Liberals' Jeremy Hanson re-tabled anti-consorting laws as a private members bill in the ACT Legislative Assembly recently. Mr Hanson described Monday's shooting as "sadly inevitable, given the government has been warned for 10 years that something like this would happen if they failed to bring in anti-consorting laws". He said that the ACT's previous chief police officer, Justine Saunders, was "very vocal about the need for anti-consorting laws" and the current chief police officer had called for nationally consistent laws. "The police association and, I imagine, every police officer on the beat, is crying out for these laws," he said. Now his bill has been tabled, it will go to the Scrutiny of Bills Committee. He has pleaded with the government to reassess the proposed legislation, and said he would gladly work with it on amendments. "I'm now going to be working with the Human Rights Commission on the legislation and look at some of the amendments they have proposed. My intention is to bring this back to the Assembly later in the year," he said. Police are asking anyone with CCTV footage or information relating to the Richardson incident that could assist them to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000, or at the Crime Stoppers ACT website. The reference number is 6372664.