Texts, CCTV, evidence photos: Inside the 2023 Whittington shooting
One man shot in the neck, another on the run until a police dog brings him undone. From how the weapon was bought, to the tense moments the trigger was pulled and the gunman’s attempts to evade the law, we take a deep dive on how a brutal Geelong crime unfolded. READ THE TEXTS, SEE THE FOOTAGE
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Mitchell Jay Dow gets out of a black Holden Trax in Freesia Court in Whittington, pulls a scarf over his face and checks his backpack and pockets.
While only his eyes are visible, his appearance is distinctive – peroxide blonde hair and facial tattoos.
It’s 5.30pm on a Wednesday in suburbia and in the pocket of his hoodie he has a gun.
Earlier this year, Dow became the third and final person to be sentenced over the shooting of a man in Whittington on March 22, 2023.
He was jailed for a maximum of seven years and four months.
Now, thanks to court documents and newly released CCTV footage and evidence photos, the Geelong Advertiser can shine a light on what happened that day.
This is the anatomy of a shooting.
‘LET’S GO SEE OLD MATE’
On March 21, 2023 – the day before the shooting – Dow was sentenced to an 18-month community corrections order (CCO) in the Geelong Magistrates’ Court.
His offences included car theft, handling stolen goods and possessing ice, GHB, an imitation firearm and ammunition.
The ink was barely dry on the order when Dow arranged to get his hands on a real gun, intending to collect what he believed was a $25,000 drug debt.
His then-girlfriend Kate Gibson bought the weapon from Torquay father Joel Stevens for $2000.
Later that same day, two videos from Dow’s snapchat account showed Gibson firing the gun towards a paddock of cows near Armstrong Creek while driving one-handed.
The morning of the shooting, Dow was upbeat.
He sent Gibson a text at 6.34am: “Beautiful let’s go see old mate, I’m in form for forced payid (sic)”.
Almost 12 hours later, at 5.10pm, Dow messaged a contact: “I’m going Round to (debtor’s) now to get whatever I can I’m not leaving without a good earn or I’ll put a billet (sic) through the c--ts leg. Word. I’m on a mission.”
Twenty minutes later, a witness filmed Gibson dropping off Dow, who was dressed in all black, in Freesia Court.
Neighbouring CCTV captured Dow entering the victim’s property.
He walked along the side of the house to a glass sliding door that opened into the kitchen and dining area.
Dow’s target sat at the kitchen table.
Another man – the home’s occupant and Dow’s eventual victim – was seated nearby.
Dow opened the door and demanded he be given a motorcycle parked in the driveway, pulling the gun from the pocket of his hoodie.
The victim insisted Dow wouldn’t be getting the keys, but after further demands from the gun-toting Dow he began to wander the house, pretending to look for them.
Heading outside, the victim ran towards the garden shed and dialled Triple-0. It was 5.39pm.
He realised Dow was following, so he slipped his phone into his pocket.
The call was still connected, and the victim could be heard assuring Dow he was still looking for the keys.
“Get out of the shed, what are you doing?” Dow said.
“Don’t be f–king stupid, you know where they are.”
Dow, who was standing less than a metre away from the victim, held the gun close to the man’s head and threatened to blow it off.
The victim began heading back to the house, followed by Dow.
But in a quick move, he slipped into the main shed and locked the door behind him.
Dow banged on the door, demanding the man “get the f--k out”.
The man inside told him to “f–k off”.
That’s when Dow lifted the weapon and fired through the shed wall at chest height.
A bullet fragment from one of the shots hit the man inside in the neck.
“You f–king dog, you shot me,” he yelled, as Dow kept firing.
Dow fired seven shots into the shed.
While it was happening, the victim’s daughter had also phoned emergency services.
She told the operator three shots had been fired, and the operator heard the other four gunshots.
‘I READ IT IN THE ADDY’
At 5.46pm, six minutes before police and paramedics arrived, Dow fled the scene, jumping over a fence and hiding behind a shed.
Police would later follow a trail of CCTV to reconstruct Dow’s route before Gibson picked him up at the East Geelong Men’s Shed at 6.02pm.
In the footage, Dow is captured running past the Newcomb Cricket Club and then the Aquatic Centre.
In the vision, he appears to be on the phone.
He was speaking to Gibson – the pair exchanged five phone calls between 5.46pm and 6.01pm.
At 5.51pm, Dow left the following voicemail on Gibson’s phone.
“Give me a call can ya, (indecipherable), the gravel road on the other side of Splashdown, the first left coming from 7-Eleven. I don’t mean to be rude, but can you just hurry up? F–k, I don’t meant to put you under this pressure. I shot (victim) though, and the cops pulled up down the road (indecipherable) get out of here. Oh f–k, ah well, f–k him, I shouldn’t have shot the f–ker.”
Picking up Dow and helping him from being caught led to Gibson being charged with assisting an offender.
Less than half an hour after the pick-up, Dow and Gibson were captured on yet more CCTV, this time at the Leopold Sportsman’s Club.
As the victim was undergoing surgery to have the bullet fragment removed from his neck, they ordered drinks and sat at the poker machines.
At 7.19pm, Gibson had a text conversation with a female associate, who said: “Tell him to (shave) he’s (sic) head on Facebook it says the suspect has tattoos and blond hair n nose ring”.
Gibson told the woman: “Just dropped Mitch off now. Gave him your number, he should contact you in the next few days”.
The pair discussed the shooting, with Gibson saying she had read in the ‘Addy that the victim was in a “non-life threatening state”.
Her associate said she had been told he was dead.
In the days following the shooting, Gibson also exchanged messages with a distressed Stevens, the man from whom she’d bought the gun.
‘NO COMMENT’
As police began their investigation, Dow shaved his head to change his appearance – but he didn’t keep a low profile.
Days after the shooting he was captured on CCTV stealing a Ford Falcon from a business on Bridge St in Port Melbourne at 4.39am on March 27.
On the way out he drove it through a gate – causing $1980 damage – and also badly damaged the vehicle.
The car was then captured on CCTV being driven into the Grovedale Hotel carpark at 1.33pm.
Hours later, Dow was arrested there by officers from Victoria Police’s elite Special Operations Group.
He’d fled a nearby address when officers arrived there to arrest him and run into the pub carpark, towards one waiting officer.
The officer told him to stop and tasered him.
The shock weapon had no effect, so officers set loose a police dog, which brought Dow down shortly afterwards
Dow was taken to hospital under police guard.
He later gave a “no comment” interview and was remanded in custody, where he has remained.
Police swooped on Joel Stevens on May 9, the same day they arrested Gibson.
In February last year Gibson pleaded guilty to, among other offences, assisting an offender and was handed an 18-month CCO.
Stevens was jailed for six months in July last year and placed on a two-year CCO, having pleaded to charges including supplying the gun.
Dow will be eligible for parole in 2027.
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Originally published as Texts, CCTV, evidence photos: Inside the 2023 Whittington shooting
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