Sunbury Macca’s police car rammer Joel Papa jailed

A hoon who carried out a shocking act outside a McDonald’s has been lashed by a judge for his ‘outrageous and dangerous behaviour’.

A hoon repeatedly rammed into a police car while his friend shot it up outside a McDonald’s in Melbourne’s northwest in “brazen contempt” for the law, a court has heard.

Joel Papa was on Wednesday jailed for five years with a non-parole period of two years and 10 months in the County Court of Victoria.

The 27-year-old admitted to using a firearm in a public place and damaging an emergency vehicle by driving.

He got into a car with his co-accused Cruz Noonan, who had loaded weapons with him, and went driving “aimlessly” around Sunbury, Judge Gerard Mullaly said.

“It was almost inevitable that something quite dangerous would unfold. And so it turned out,” the judge said.

Joel Papa has been sentenced for his role in connection to the police shooting outside Sunbury McDonald's.

The duo went to a Sunbury McDonald’s and spotted a divisional van in the parking lot of the fast food restaurant about 3.15am on August 13, 2019.

The pair drove around the lot twice before returning and Noonan fired several rounds into the van as the officers were inside the shop.

They called for back up and those officers also took shelter inside the McDonald’s.

Papa sounded his horn while Noonan “woohoo’d” as the police officers took cover inside.

“Clearly you were, in a way, celebrating your outrageous and dangerous behaviour,” Judge Mullaly said.

Joel Papa and his co-accused went to a McDonald’s and attacked police who were there on a break.

Papa rammed the other police car as the officers and McDonald’s workers took shelter. Noonan again fired his gun at the second vehicle, the court was told.

A police helicopter tracked the pair after they fled the scene and they were later arrested.

The judge said the behaviour showed a “brazen contempt” for law enforcement and said it was a “highly dangerous and frightening” incident.

He also slammed Papa’s “gloating conduct” after the incident.

Noonan is now on the run after he failed to show up for a pre-sentence hearing for this matter, the court was told.

The judge took into account Papa had a low IQ and did not orchestrate “the whole wild episode”.

He has spent 650 days in custody and will be eligible for parole in a little over a year.