Mariusz Nurzynski faces ACT Supreme Court sentence hearing after Phillip shooting

A grandfather who suspected a man of stealing his expensive electric bike made a gun and shot the man’s car. Read what he told a court at his sentencing.

Mariusz Nurzynski, who manufactured a gun and fired it in Canberra. Picture: Facebook

A gunman has cried in court while expressing his desire to apologise to the man he targeted with a homemade firearm while under the influence of “crummy ice”.

“I know I’m totally disgraced,” Mariusz Ergland Nurzynski told the ACT Supreme Court during a sentence hearing on Thursday.

Nurzynski, 59, previously pleaded guilty to charges of manufacturing a prohibited firearm and discharging a firearm in an act endangering life.

Court documents show he committed the offences early on a Tuesday morning in August 2023.

Believing the victim had stolen his $10,000 electric bicycle, Nurzynski visited the man’s home in the Canberra suburb of Phillip at dawn.

He took with him a homemade gun, which he had put together using “materials he’d picked up over the years”.

Mariusz Nurzynski, who manufactured a gun and fired it in Canberra. Picture: Facebook

Nurzynski donned a black face covering and approached the victim, who initially responded by chasing him up a nearby alleyway.

When the victim realised the 59-year-old Garran resident had a gun, he retreated and ran back towards his home and car.

Court documents state he got into the vehicle and drove it towards Nurzynski before he heard a loud “boof”, which was the sound of the offender discharging the homemade gun.

The victim reported the incident later that day and provided home CCTV footage to police, who inspected his car and found a bullet hole in the front passenger door.

Early the following morning, officers arrested Nurzynski and found the homemade gun in his living room.

Nurzynski, a disability support pensioner who has been remanded in custody ever since, entered the witness box on Thursday.

He claimed he had visited a police station four times before the shooting to report his stolen bike, but officers had laughed at him and refused to help.

The 59-year-old said he therefore manufactured the gun in the hope it would scare the victim into returning his bike.

“I would not have used it if he wasn’t coming up after me,” Nurzynski told the court, claiming he only fired the weapon because the victim had tried to run him over.

The court heard Nurzynski had been using cannabis and methamphetamine, which he described as “crummy ice”, around the time of his offending.

He gave evidence he had given up both drugs while in jail, where he had been able to reflect on his behaviour.

“If I could have [the victim] right here, I would apologise to him and explain that this isn’t the actions of a rational person,” Nurzynski said.

The gunman became particularly emotional when talking about his 10 grandchildren, the youngest of whom he is yet to meet because of his incarceration.

Defence lawyer Nathan Deakes urged Justice Verity McWilliam to spare Nurzynski further time behind bars by imposing an intensive correction order.

But a prosecutor said full-time imprisonment would be the only appropriate sentence.

Justice McWilliam ultimately adjourned the sentencing until April, saying she wanted to have Nurzynski assessed for his eligibility for a drug and alcohol treatment order.

Nurzynski agreed to undergo the assessment, instructing Mr Deakes he would take any help he could get.

Mr Deakes indicated he would likely apply for Nurzynski to be released on bail next week.