Drizzt
January 10, 2003, 05:13 PM
Several wounded in air rifle rampage
Several people in Cairns have been injured in a night-time series of drive-by shootings with an air rifle, police said.
A 22-year-old British tourist was the first person hit, wounded in the chest while walking along a city street at 10.30pm (AEST) on Thursday night, a police spokeswoman said.
She said the tourist was hit by a pellet from a gun fired from a passing car, which he identified as a dark Chrysler Sigma station wagon.
Fifteen minutes later, a 39-year-old Cairns man sitting on the footpath was hit in the shoulder by a pellet.
The man believed the shot was fired by one of two men driving past in a 1980s Holden Commodore station wagon, she said.
Both victims received medical treatment for minor injuries.
A camp of homeless people was the next target, although details were sketchy as police had not been able to track down the injured, the spokeswoman said.
But local resident Robert Demaine said a car drove past and fired six shots, then drove past a second time and fired 12 shots.
"It was a pellet gun, it wasn't a proper gun," he said.
Mr Demaine said a young man was hit in the leg and another woman was grazed by a bullet, but the injuries were not serious.
"I reckon they'll come back with a real gun, the way they're going. I reckon they'll come back tonight," he told journalists in Cairns.
http://au.news.yahoo.com/030110/2/iree.html
Several people in Cairns have been injured in a night-time series of drive-by shootings with an air rifle, police said.
A 22-year-old British tourist was the first person hit, wounded in the chest while walking along a city street at 10.30pm (AEST) on Thursday night, a police spokeswoman said.
She said the tourist was hit by a pellet from a gun fired from a passing car, which he identified as a dark Chrysler Sigma station wagon.
Fifteen minutes later, a 39-year-old Cairns man sitting on the footpath was hit in the shoulder by a pellet.
The man believed the shot was fired by one of two men driving past in a 1980s Holden Commodore station wagon, she said.
Both victims received medical treatment for minor injuries.
A camp of homeless people was the next target, although details were sketchy as police had not been able to track down the injured, the spokeswoman said.
But local resident Robert Demaine said a car drove past and fired six shots, then drove past a second time and fired 12 shots.
"It was a pellet gun, it wasn't a proper gun," he said.
Mr Demaine said a young man was hit in the leg and another woman was grazed by a bullet, but the injuries were not serious.
"I reckon they'll come back with a real gun, the way they're going. I reckon they'll come back tonight," he told journalists in Cairns.
http://au.news.yahoo.com/030110/2/iree.html