Deadly shootings ‘part and parcel’ of life in Sydney, senior police say

Crime is not out of control in Sydney, and people being murdered on the streets is part and parcel of life in the city, senior police have said after three fatal shootings in eight days.

However, NSW Premier Chris Minns rejected the characterisation on Thursday morning, warning the situation is “not normal”, and the shootings were unacceptable.

The recent deaths, the latest outside a community centre in Sydney’s south-west on Wednesday, also include an innocent man being shot in his bed and another shot in a duplex doorway with two children inside.

NSW Police acting Assistant Commissioner Grant Taylor said on Thursday morning the city was dealing with its usual number of deaths.

“It always looks like crime is out of control but, when you look at it, we’re on track,” he said.

“We always have about eight organised crime murders a year. We’ve had six, and then last night made seven.

“It’s always going to be part and parcel of life in a big metropolis; this is no different.”

In a press conference immediately following Taylor’s comments, Minns said the gangland violence was shocking and the public “shouldn’t have to put up with” it.

“I’d hate it for anyone to believe that we’re accepting of the status quo, or we believe that it’s normal, or that it’s acceptable, or that we just have to turn a blind eye,” he said.

“I don’t think any premier or any political leader can ever make the claim or promise that murder will stop in a big state like NSW, but we can promise arrests, and we can promise longer jail time for the people who are involved.”

Minns distanced himself from the comments by Taylor but maintained he had a close relationship with police in the state.

“I really believe in them,” Minns said. “Detectives put enormous resources into smashing these networks up, and they do arrest the people responsible for it.”

Boxing coach Louis Meehan, 32, was shot dead in an ambush in Sydney’s south-west on Wednesday night in the latest attack believed to be linked to organised crime.

He was killed behind his boxing gym in the car park of the Punchbowl Community Centre, sprayed with gunfire by an assailant who fled in a silver Lexus.

Police rushed to the car park, administering urgent CPR to Meehan, while two onlookers knelt to pray before he was pronounced dead.

Onlookers, including multiple school students, watched on from the edge of the car park as paramedics worked to save him.

The silver Lexus believed to have been used as the getaway car was recovered hours later in Bass Hill, about nine kilometres from the scene, and is being forensically examined.

Opposition Leader Kellie Sloane also said she did “not accept that gangland murders are part of everyday life”.

“Tell that to the mother whose children witnessed the aftermath of last night’s shooting,” Sloane said on Thursday.

“This is not normal. This should not be part of the Sydney I live in. We should feel safe.”

Meehan posted pictures online wearing merchandise linked to the Alameddine crime gang. This includes clothing from Proper 60, a Merrylands-based group associated with the family, and Ready 4 War, the name of the Alameddine network’s drug-trafficking operation.

Campsie Police Area Commander Dean Johnstone confirmed Meehan was known to police.

“This is a callous act,” he said. “We do not believe that other persons were at risk. However, obviously, in a public place like this, those actions cannot be tolerated.”

Johnstone said police had no information to suggest Meehan’s life was in immediate danger, or that any underworld contract had been taken out for his murder.

Taylor said that, despite Meehan’s alleged links to outlaw motorcycle gangs – possibly the reason he was killed – his death differed from recent underworld shootings. Police believe the shooter acted alone, and the recovered getaway car had not been torched.

“It’s intact and we hope to think we’ll get some good forensics as a result,” Taylor said.

Meehan, the son of former Australian boxing great Kali Meehan, played for the Sydney Roosters’ National Youth Competition side alongside brother Willis in 2013 before turning to full-time boxing coaching.

He was a senior coach on the Meehan Boxing Team, a family-run business that conducted personal training sessions and boxing classes. His brothers are also involved in the business.

His younger brother, boxer Isaac Meehan, posted an online tribute to Louis on Thursday morning.

The Punchbowl Community Centre car park sits one block behind The Boulevarde, a busy high street adjacent to Punchbowl train station.

It is on the same road as St Jerome’s Catholic Primary School and St Jerome’s Catholic Church.

Meehan’s killing is the third in little over a week. University student Marco Tapia, 23, was shot dead in his bed in Glen Alpine on Tuesday last week. The next day, Joshua Macdonald, 40, was shot in the doorway of a Merrylands West home.

Tapia was in his third year of a biomedical engineering degree at the University of Technology Sydney, and his only brush with the law was through a minor traffic offence.

Macdonald, who did not live at the Merrylands West duplex, arrived there with a resident and two children shortly before a grey Audi sedan stopped outside the home and a gunman opened fire from the back seat.

The owners of the property, who do not live there, are known to police and linked to organised crime.