Young child, man critical after ‘gas canister incident’ at Eden Hills in Adelaide foothills
A man and a child who were found unconscious in their Adelaide foothills home are in a critical condition in hospital following a “domestic-violence related” incident involving gas canisters.
Police & Courts
Don't miss out on the headlines from Police & Courts. Followed categories will be added to My News.
A man and a young girl are in a critical condition after a domestic-violence related incident involving gas canisters at Eden Hills.
Police received an urgent call for assistance at a home on Kinedana St about midnight on Thursday.
After speaking to a woman on arrival, patrols found a 43-year-old man and a three-year-old girl both unconscious in a bedroom.
They were both treated at the scene before being taken to the Flinders Medical Centre in a critical condition.
The young girl has since been stabilised and transferred to the Women’s and Children’s Hospital. The man is under police guard and detectives are waiting to speak with him.
The woman and another child at the property were not hurt.
The incident is not considered random with all people involved living at the premises.
Southern CIB detectives returned to the scene just after 7.30am to continue searching inside the property.
Throughout the morning, police seized several bags of evidence containing what appeared to be gas bottles before leaving the property just before 11.30am.
Police Commissioner Grant Stevens said the investigation was in its “very early stages”.
“Obviously very tragic circumstances but at this stage the indications are that it may be domestic-violence related but it’s too early for us to be specific about the causes,” he said.
Mr Stevens also spoke of the toll such incidents had on first responders.
Detectives continue to remove evidence from the Eden Hills home on Kinedana St @theTiser pic.twitter.com/4U5Qlz0bVC
— Gabriel Polychronis (@G_Polychronis) July 16, 2020
“I can speak from personal experience and I think most police officers can as well, when you’re involved in a set of circumstances that involves injury or harm to a small child it does make the job that much more difficult and there’s a personal toll that comes with dealing with those sorts of situations,” he said.
Neighbour Ben Xiong, 29, said a young family live at the single-storey home and was shocked to see police and emergency services swarming on the street just after midnight.
“We saw someone was being sent into the ambulance and someone was crying,” Mr Xiong said.
Another neighbour, Betty Malavazos, said her grandchildren had recently played with the three-year-old girl at a nearby playground.
“They were at the park playing chasey and they were happy,” she said.
“She is a beautiful little girl – a sweet little girl – and I pray to god for her.”
Professor Vincent Megaw, 86, has lived on Kinedana St for three decades and said it has always been a quiet neighbourhood with very few disturbances.
“It’s just total disbelief,” he said.
“This is the most unquiet thing that has happened since we’ve been here.”
Peter Cavouras, whose mother lives on the street, said: “I’m very saddened by the news and I feel really sorry for the family, so my heart goes out to them and I hope there’s some clarity and some resolution for all concerned”.
Meanwhile, police are investigating a separate incident at Gameau Rd, Two Wells, where a man was stabbed in the back overnight.
A 38-year-old man was taken to the Royal Adelaide Hospital in a serious condition after police where called to a home just after 4am.
That incident is not random and could be drug-related, police say.