Ryan Richard Izzard, then aged 20, leaves the ACT courts under a jacket in January 2025. Photo: Claire Sams.
After a struggle at a rural property, a young man walked to a shed while laughing unnaturally, then returned with a gun and fired it at random, causing four others to run and hide.
Ryan Richard Izzard was granted bail after he was arrested over the incident on 11 January 2025, then returned to the ACT Magistrates Court, along with a crowd of supporters, to be sentenced on Thursday (26 February).
The court heard he was 20 when he and four other young men went to his father’s property at Coree, near Uriarra Village, to go pig hunting.
They were all drinking alcohol, and the men said Izzard started to become agitated. When one of the men made a joke that upset him, the pair started wrestling, prompting the others to intervene and restrain Izzard, who was angry.
When he was released, he walked to a shed with “an unnatural laugh”, which scared the men.
They started running in various directions and heard Izzard fire about six shots over 10 minutes while they hid around the property.
One of the men called the police, who met all four at a road and took them to safety. Izzard was arrested at the property.
The prosecutor said it must have been terrifying for the four victims.
She said the incident was met with a major police response, with about 65 officers deployed to the area, which showed how seriously it was taken.
Izzard’s barrister, Stephen Robinson, said one of the four young men was a family friend of his client, while he had only met the others recently.
“[They are] people who, unlike Mr Izzard, have criminal histories,” he said.
He said his client didn’t want to harm the four men, but wanted to scare them. This was due to being put in a headlock for several minutes and thinking the men were disrespecting his father’s property.
Mr Robinson said at the time that his client hadn’t worked for six months, was drinking alcohol every day and was depressed and directionless.
Chief Magistrate Lorraine Walker accepted Izzard didn’t aim at anyone in particular and the shots were intended as a warning.
“Whether you intended to hit someone or not, firing randomly, as this must have been, created that risk,” she said.
“Firearms in the community are a plague.
“When they are misused, they create a great risk to members of the community.”
The now-21-year-old metal fabricator, who spent two days in custody after his arrest, pleaded guilty to a charge of discharging loaded arms causing fear.
He was convicted and sentenced to an 18-month intensive corrections order, which is a community-based sentence.
...and exactly why can't we just rebuild on the existing site? Surely Barr's vanity trainset isn't… View