Two people have been injured in a police shooting in Sydney’s west in an incident over a stolen car.
NSW Police said the incident occurred after police were called to Lane Street, Wentworthville, shortly after midday on Friday in response to reports of a stolen vehicle.
“Police then entered the underground car park of a unit block and police discharged their firearms, injuring two men inside the stolen car,” NSW Police commissioner Karen Webb said.
The officers gave first aid until paramedics arrived.
Both men were taken to Westmead Hospital, where they remained on Friday. One is in a critical condition while the other is serious but stable.
Neither officer was injured.
Penrith state Labor MP Karen McKeown later confirmed a car belonging to her husband had been stolen on Thursday night, when intruders broke into her house.
“While I am shaken from the events, thankfully I am unharmed,” she said.
“Political leaders often praise police for their bravery.
“Today, I have had a first-hand experience of this.”
NSW Police said a critical incident team from the state crime command’s homicide squad and officers from the south-west metropolitan region would investigate the circumstances surrounding the incident.
The investigation is also subject to an independent review.
A man is in a critical condition in hospital after being shot by police in Melbourne’s north-west. Photo: AAP
Melbourne shooting
The Sydney incident followed another police shooting in Melbourne earlier on Friday.
Victorian Police said a man was shot by officers after a fatal family violence incident involving his stepfather and heavily pregnant sister.
Police were called to a stabbing at a home at Hillside, in Melbourne’s north-west, just before 7am on Friday, where a 61-year-old man was found with critical injuries on the front lawn.
He was given CPR but died at the scene.
Detective Inspector Dean Thomas said officers heard a woman screaming inside the house and and went to investigate.
“It was a very confronting, distressing scene for our members to turn up to; it was clearly obvious that [the 61-year-old] had been assaulted,” he said on Friday afternoon.
The deceased man’s stepson, aged in his 30s, moved towards officers armed with a weapon, believed to be a knife or axe, despite requests to drop it.
An officer fired one shot inside the house before the armed man went outside and stabbed the tyre of a police vehicle.
The man again moved towards police who fired several shots, Thomas said.
“This offender was very, very capable of causing serious injury to anybody and hence [the officers] maintained their distance and did everything they could to avoid a confrontation with them resulting in a shooting,” he said.
“But unfortunately, this male has advanced on the member [of police] and the member has fired a number of shots.
“From what I can see from the body-worn cameras, they’ve acted bravely and they’ve done everything they could.”
The stepson was shot in the lower body and is under police guard in hospital in a critical but stable condition.
His sister, who was at the home, is receiving medical treatment.