Man shot by police in Sunshine after dramatic chase
Dramatic new footage has emerged of the driver of a stolen tow truck being apprehended after he was shot by police following a wild chase across Melbourne.
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A dramatic hour-long police pursuit ended when a man was shot by officers after smashing an allegedly stolen tow truck into a tree.
The alleged thief first led the truck’s owner and then police from South Morang to Sunshine late yesterday afternoon, hitting other vehicles and running red lights.
The dangerous chase ended when the truck hit the tree on Wright St about 5pm, allowing Special Operation Group and Critical Incident Response teams to rush in.
The driver was shot and seriously injured as officers tried to arrest him.
Footage obtained by the Herald Sun shows the man slumped on the ground after he was shot, surrounded by heavily armed police.
As of Tuesday afternoon, the man remained under police guard in a serious condition.
The distinctive yellow tow truck was stolen from MMM Auto Centre in Craigieburn shortly after 6am on Friday.
A police car rammed in West Footscray on Palmerston Street is understood to be linked to the incident.
Civilian cars were also damaged in the pursuit.
Truck owner Joshua Mudaliar described the man who wreaked peak hour havoc across Melbourne as a “bogan” wearing white sunglasses.
He believed the same man was responsible for a break-in at his centre two weeks ago.
Picture by @aussiewongm shows where the stolen tow truck crashed on Wright St, Sunshine. There is a hole in the back windscreen. pic.twitter.com/NwrGvqgETL
— Tamsin Rose (@tamsinroses) September 30, 2019
Mr Mudaliar reported the theft to police and also put out extensive calls on social media.
He received a call early yesterday afternoon after a truck with the same description, but different plates, was spotted on Grange Rd, South Morang.
Mr Mudaliar raced across the city with his dad and quickly confirmed it was his.
He kept his distance as he waited for police, but a man got into the truck and drove away so the owner followed.
“He was a white caucasian guy, stocky,” Mr Mudaliar said. “He had white sunglasses, he was very bogan.”
The driver quickly worked out he was being followed and tried to lose the trailing owner.
“He figured out that we were on his tail,” Mr Mudaliar said. “I was chasing him for about half an hour.
“He crashed into a couple of cars in South Morang.”
Rayna Mishra, 30, lives just around the corner from Wright St and said she heard six to eight “loud bangs” in succession.
“At first I thought it was fireworks’” Ms Mishra said.
“Then I heard the police sirens and realised it wasn’t.”
Ms Mishra was in the backyard about 4:45 pm when she heard the commotion.
She said she quickly went inside because it didn’t feel safe.
“Before I closed the door the smell of burnt rubber went all through the house,”
Other residents in the area, who did not wish to be named, said they heard what sounded like fireworks too.
“After that we heard lots of police sirens,” they said.
One of the residents said he was working on Ashley St when he thought he saw the yellow tow truck being chased by police.
“(The police) were not holding back.” He said.
The resident said he saw the truck being chased by marked and unmarked police cars down Ashley St towards Wright st in the direction of Tottenham station before 5.00 pm.
An Automotive repair business owner was working at his shop opposite where the incident happened.
Brad who didn’t want to reveal his last name said he was working on a car out the front when he said he heard what he thought sounded like cars crashing followed by shots.
“I walked out toward the road to see what had happened that’s when the rapid gunfire rang out possibly what sounded like 6 to 8 very loud shots,”
“It all happened so quickly,” he said
Brad described “a massive cloud of smoke” that surrounded the tow truck.
“It looked like a yellow tilt tray had rammed an undercover police vehicle into a tree,”
He said after the crash there were 4 or so other police vehicles that blocked off the road and caused “causing mayhem with the peak hour traffic”.
The driver was treated at the scene by paramedics before being rushed to hospital with serious upper-body injuries.
Professional Standards Command will oversee the investigation, as is practice when a police gun is fired.
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The theft was particularly devastating for Mr Mudaliar because it was the first truck he bought for his business.
“It was a very sad thing even to go to work without it there,” Mr Mudaliar said.
“But we didn’t give up.”