Victoria Police HQ may have been target of shooting
A bullet that flew over Southern Cross Station and smashed through an apartment window may have been aimed at Victoria Police’s Spencer St headquarters.
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Police are investigating whether a shot fired 700 metres through inner-Melbourne was aimed at the force’s new high-rise city headquarters.
The bullet from a high-powered rifle smashed through the window of a Latrobe St apartment in June after the trigger was allegedly pulled in Docklands.
An accused drug dealer who lives high up in a Docklands tower is facing serious charges over the incident.
The bullet had travelled over Etihad Stadium and Southern Cross railway station and past Victoria Police’s Spencer St HQ, en route to the Latrobe St residence.
The force has steadily moved its operations, including crime squad investigators, into the building in recent years.
The armed crime squad ran a complex inquiry after the mysterious shooting damage was found in early June.
Painstaking ballistic examination and trajectory calculations from the crime scene led them to an apartment tower on Harbour Esplanade.
Investigators also probed the unexplained shooting of a vehicle found damaged in a car park at Docklands in March.
It is not clear whether the same gun was used in both attacks.
On June 25, detectives from the armed crime squad swooped and arrested a 28-year-old Docklands man in relation to the shootings.
Weapons, drugs and cash were allegedly seized during a search on that day.
The Docklands man has been charged with two counts of using a category B firearm, possessing a traffickable quantity of firearms, reckless conduct endangering life, two counts of possessing a general category handgun and criminal damage.
The charged man remains in custody on remand.
The Sunday Herald Sun yesterday revealed the extent of Victoria Police crackdown on illegal gun use through the use of firearm prohibition orders.
They have served 1038 of the orders since they came into use in 2018 as authorities worked to curb high numbers of non-fatal shootings in the state.
Police can search the homes and vehicles of FPO holders without a warrant.
Senior police say they are partly responsible for a dramatic drop in the number of non-fatal shootings in recent years.
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