QLD:Too soon to link Gold Coast shootings

AAP General News (Australia)
12-06-2010
QLD:Too soon to link Gold Coast shootings

By Tony Bartlett

GOLD COAST, Dec 6 AAP - Police say they're working on new leads in two shooting cases,
warning it's too early to say whether the incidents are linked.

The most serious attack has left a 42-year-old father in a serious but stable condition
in hospital after he was gunned down in front of his family.

The man was struck by one of two shots fired as he walked with his family along the
esplanade at Surfers Paradise about 9pm (AEST) on Saturday.

An hour earlier, shots were fired from a dark coloured BMW into a blue Commodore on
the M1 near Oxenford, showering a woman passenger with broken glass.

Police said the BMW had been tailgating the Commodore before the shots rang out.

In a third shooting on Sunday night, an unoccupied car on Bundall Road at Bundall just
a couple of minutes drive from Surfers Paradise, was hit by three shots.

Detective Superintendent Dave Hutchinson said in at least two of the shootings different
firearms were used.

"We have received some information overnight (on both the Oxenford and Surfers Paradise
shootings) but we're still following up those enquiries," he told reporters on Monday
afternoon.

"The investigations are obviously continuing in relation to all three at this stage
and I'm not prepared to divulge exactly which way we're going, or what we've ascertained,
other than to say we're still seeking the public's assistance."

The detective superintendent said police talked briefly with the father and have not
yet formally interviewed him.

He said there was no need for public alarm.

"Thousands of people come to the Gold Coast every day ... and they leave without being
confronted by crime," he said.

"This sort of incident can occur at any time, in any place. But in saying that it's
very concerning; these are very serious incidents and we are treating them as such."

Police could not confirm if the shots fired in the esplanade incident came from a nearby
high rise building.

Det Supt Hutchinson said police were still trying to establish a motive for that crime,
and appealed for public information.

"I'm firmly of the belief that there is somebody out there who knows what occurred,
and why it occurred, and who did it," he told reporters.

A team of at least 20 detectives from Gold Coast and Coomera CIB and the State Crime
Operations Command is working on the case which has been code-named Operation Ice Shining.

AAP bart/crh/jh

KEYWORD: DRIVEBY WRAP

� 2010 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.