By Alex Crowe
A 17-year-old boy is in hospital after being shot through his bedroom window while sleeping in Melbourne’s south-east, as investigators uncover a burnt-out vehicle thought to be linked to the crime.
Police say they believe at least two people staked out Janmara Court in Endeavour Hills in a Mitsubishi Eclipse before firing shots at a house from the road or footpath about 1.20am on Wednesday, injuring the teen while he slept.
Police gather evidence from a Janmara Court home in Endeavour Hills after a sleeping boy was injured in a hail of gunfire.Credit: AAP
The Mitsubishi, reported stolen from a Mornington Peninsula property last month, was found at a reserve in Melzak Way in Narre Warren about 4am on Wednesday.
Witnesses told police they believed one of the drivers injured himself while setting fire to the car.
Detective Acting Inspector Al Hanson said officers were investigating whether the shooter unintentionally injured the teenager, as they have been unable to establish a motive for the attack.
Hanson said police believed two rounds had been fired through the bedroom window.
Bullet holes visible in the window where a teenage boy was shot.Credit: AAP
“There was no one in the address at the time that we believe is the intended target,” Hanson said.
“We are in the very early stages of this investigation, but we’re operating on the belief that it is a targeted shooting.”
Hanson said the 17-year-old was taken to The Alfred hospital in a stable condition, where he was recovering on Wednesday afternoon.
He said the teenager was not known to Victoria Police and his family was co-operating with the investigation.
Detectives from the armed crime squad were reviewing CCTV footage from a number of houses on the street on Wednesday.
Hanson said there was no information to suggest any link to organised crime.
“There’s no link that we know of at the moment to any other shootings in the Dandenong area,” he said.
“We are doing everything we can to locate and apprehend the offenders. I expect people to be on edge, it’s only natural, but rest assured police are devoting a lot of their energies into capturing the offenders.”
Police scour the scene for clues on Wednesday.Credit: Nine News
Other family members, who were inside the house at the time of the shooting, were uninjured. They are a 56-year-old man, a 46-year-old woman, a 26-year-old woman and an 11-year-old girl.
The area around the home was cordoned off while detectives from the armed crime squad and officers from the major crime scene unit investigated the scene.
A next-door neighbour, who asked not to be named to protect the safety of her family, said she heard shots fired in the usually quiet street overnight.
The woman said she was terrified at the thought of a shooting happening so close to where she and her daughter were sleeping.
An Endeavour Hills road has been taped off as police investigate the shooting of a 17-year-old boy. Credit: Alex Crowe
“We heard gunshots. It was quite loud,” she said. “This [street] was [usually] very peaceful and quiet, it’s a good location. It’s the first time something [has] happened in our lives.”
Another neighbour, who asked not to be named, said he was asleep in his house nearby when he was woken by the sound of gunfire.
“I woke up to the six shots and then looked out the window, heard another six and then saw a car fly down the street, and then I called the cops after that,” he said.
The neighbour said he had lived on the street for more than 20 years.
He said he believed a family of five or six people lived in the house where the teenager had been shot.
“There were cops that used to come up every now and then and check on the house for something, but I’m not sure what,” the neighbour said.
“It was a bit surreal waking up to gunshots, being in Australia and not being in America. At least they’re OK for now, just hoping they recover.”
With David Estcourt
The Morning Edition newsletter is our guide to the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up here.