Edithvale home peppered with bullets in latest drive-by shooting
Residents on a quiet bayside street say they heard what sounded like machine gun fire when a home was sprayed with bullets in the latest in a wave of drive-by shootings.
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A house in Melbourne’s bayside suburbs has been peppered with bullets in the latest in a series of drive-by shootings.
Police say a “number of shots” were fired at a home and several parked cars along Berry Ave in Edithvale about 4am Thursday.
The male and female occupants were home at the time but were uninjured.
It remains unclear whether the shooting was a targeted attack.
Three neighbours on Berry Ave say the shots sounded like they were fired from “a machine gun”.
Resident Lewis Silvester, who has lived in Edithvale for 58 years, said: “I heard what now I would say was machine gun fire.
“It was almost like a machine gun — it was at speed, it was serious.
“I don’t like that when I’m waking up in the morning (but) I’ve had too many scares in my life to worry about that.”
On Thursday, two units along Berry Ave remained cordoned off as forensic investigators scoured the scene.
It’s understood the rear unit, a maroon painted double-storey weatherboard building, was the home hit by bullets.
It’s also understood the offender or offenders walked up the driveway and fired the shots at the rear home, rather than shooting from the street.
A Volkswagen Tiguan parked in the driveway was also hit with at least one shot and the rear window was smashed.
A burnt-out car was also found at the nearby Chelsea Heights Football Netball Club reserve on Thursday.
Police are investigating any possible links to the shooting.
Fire damage has rendered the vehicle model barely identifiable.
Police revealed they had so far been unable to find any sort of vehicle identification, believing they may have been stripped before the car was torched.
Neighbour Andrew Tims said he was “flabbergasted” by the shooting.
“Roughly at 3.45am I heard four shots, fired quickly, then a car took off,” he told the Herald Sun.
“It’s a quiet neighbourhood, nothing ever happens here, we’re just flabbergasted that it occurred.
“It’s scary stuff… these things don’t happen randomly, there’s got to be a reason behind it.
“We’ve been here for five years and never had any issues, we’ve always lived in the bayside area and have felt quite secure.”
It comes amid a wave of drive-by shootings across Melbourne’s suburbs in recent months, after a 17-year-old boy was shot in his Endeavour Hills home on September 13.
Up to 15 shots were fired through the windows of the home about 1.30am, with police believing it was a targeted attack but the boy was not the intended victim.
He was taken to The Alfred hospital in a stable condition.
A day later, a home in Melbourne’s north was also hit by more than a dozen bullets.
More than 15 shots were fired into an Excelsior Heights home in Craigieburn just after midnight with the two occupants of the home unharmed.
Police are continuing their investigation into Thursday’s shooting and are calling on anyone with information to contact Crime Stoppers.
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