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City shooting
BY TENEILLE WATSON
Wednesday, 19 January 2005
BUNBURY police have charged a well-known Club Deroes motorcycle gang member with
threatening a crowd with a loaded pistol before firing in the direction of six
people outside a Bunbury hotel on Friday.
Police say the incident happened after the man allegedly assaulted a 39-year-old
Bunbury woman outside the Highway Hotel at about 12.20am on Friday. The woman
received minor injuries.
The 30-year-old Kewdale man is then alleged to have produced a pistol and
threatened people with it before firing in the direction of the crowd.
A bullet struck a pillar at the front of the hotel, slightly injuring a
23-year-old female hotel employee.
The man was arrested without incident in Dwellingup on Monday following a joint
investigation by Bunbury detectives, Gang Response Unit and other support areas.
He was charged with one count of assault occasioning bodily harm and one count
of a dangerous act with intent to harm – endangering life.
He appeared in the Bunbury Court of Petty Sessions yesterday but was remanded
until Friday.
He was refused bail.
Although a separate incident, Friday night's events are not the first time a
member of an outlaw motorcycle gang has been involved in a shooting around a
Bunbury nightspot.
In 2003 former Rebels Motorcycle Club member Gavin McMaster was found guilty of
shooting James Garland and Andrew Geldert on February 9, 2002 inside Area 1 The
Club.
While in Casuarina prison McMaster was doused with a flammable liquid and set on
fire.
His attacker, who set McMaster alight to remove his club tattoo, was later
sentenced to six years in prison.
