By Penry Buckley and Riley Walter
Two teenagers have been charged after a barbershop was sprayed with bullets, a car torched and police led on a chase through Sydney’s west early on Thursday morning.
NSW Police responded to reports of shots fired at the Universal Barbershop near North Parade, Mount Druitt, at 2.20am on Thursday.
Three separate crime scenes have been established after a barbershop in Mount Druitt was sprayed with bullets overnight on Thursday. Credit: Nine News
Officers found several bullet holes in the shop’s window at Westfield Mt Druitt Shopping Centre. So many bullets were fired that police were forced to use lettered evidence markers after running out of numbered ones, Nine News reported.
About 2.10am, emergency services were called to a vehicle fire near Blacktown International Sportspark on Football Drive, Bungarribee, where they extinguished a blaze.
Earlier, just after 2am, officers patrolling Eastern Road in the Rooty Hill area launched a pursuit after attempting to stop a grey Toyota Camry because of the way it was driving.
The vehicle, which police said was stolen, failed to stop as directed before crashing into a parked car on Moody Street a short time later.
A car was found alight in Rooty Hill early on Thursday morning. Credit: TNV
The alleged driver and passenger, both 17-year-old boys, were uninjured and arrested at the scene, and two balaclavas, a jerry can of fuel and two firearms were found inside the vehicle, police said.
The alleged driver has been charged with a range of offences over the shooting, car fire and police pursuit.
The passenger was charged over the shooting and for possessing an unregistered firearm in a public place. Both teens were refused bail to face a children’s court on Thursday.
The owner of the parked car told 2GB he was woken by a loud bang before seeing the alleged offenders pinned down by officers outside his home.
“From what I was told, and I don’t know if this is 100 per cent accurate, they’ve come screaming down the street here, and this is a dead-end cul-de-sac in Rooty Hill,” he said. “They’ve mounted the curb, and he didn’t see my two-and-a-half tonne, four-wheel drive truck parked on my driveway.”
Speaking outside the station, Detective Superintendent Darrin Batchelor said the motive behind the shooting was unknown, but police are investigating whether the three incidents inside 20 minutes have links to organised crime.
“As we can see by the timings, 2am, with no members of the public around and certainly no employees in the business, it would indicate that it was certainly a message to those owners,” he said.
Batchelor said the Toyota Camry was allegedly stolen some time ago, and police are investigating whether the torched vehicle, which police believe may have been used to leave the shooting, was also stolen.
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