source : the age
A man has been shot dead in the carpark of a community centre in Sydney’s south-west.
Witnesses reported a black ute speeding away from the carpark of the Punchbowl Community Centre about 5.50pm on Wednesday as multiple gunshots rang out.
The man was shot beside a white sedan at the entry of the carpark, which was full at the time of the incident.
Confronting social media footage shows two police officers administering CPR to the victim, while two onlookers pray just metres away. Witnesses, including multiple school students, watch on from the edge of the carpark as paramedics arrive.
Police have established a crime scene. The man is yet to be identified. Several police cars and ambulances were dispatched to the scene, as was a police helicopter and fire truck.
The Punchbowl Community Centre carpark sits one block behind The Boulevarde, a busy high street adjacent to Punchbowl Station. It is on the same road as St Jerome’s Catholic Primary School and St Jerome’s Catholic Church.
The Punchbowl shooting comes two days after the Minns government announced a suite of measures targeting an outbreak of gangland violence on Sydney’s streets.
The measures were flagged in response to last week’s mistaken identity murders of university student Marco Tapia, 23, and business owner Joshua Macdonald, 40, in the city’s west.
The reforms promised tighter targeting of offshore kingpins and local middle men orchestrating violent attacks, and tougher penalties for teenagers carrying out gang-related shootings and firebombings.
It marks the NSW government’s third significant crackdown on organised crime in two years and came days after denying police had lost control of escalating violence.
Asked on Monday if community fears were justified following last week’s shootings, Premier Chris Minns said: “We do think there’s a problem.”
“There [is] a disregard for human life I haven’t really seen before,” he said. “It’s been a regrettable and horrible part of life in Sydney.”
Daniel Lo Surdo is a breaking news reporter for The Sydney Morning Herald. He previously helmed the national news live blog for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.Connect via email.
