Detective Chief Inspector Keith Price (NSW Police) and Detective Acting Inspector Mark Battye (ACT Policing) speaking about the stabbings on Thursday. Photo: Albert McKnight.
Police allege a large number of bikies descended on a shop in Queanbeyan last month and tried to kill two people in a targeted stabbing against a rival group.
Two men, aged 26 and 29, were stabbed at a business on Crawford Street around 1 pm on 8 August, then were taken to hospital with serious injuries.
After an investigation, police raided locations across the ACT and southern NSW on Wednesday (3 September). They arrested a total of seven people, while an eighth, who was already in custody, will be charged at a future date.
It is alleged that the eight were members of an outlaw motorcycle gang (OMCG), including four high-ranking members, who all went to the business where the two men were stabbed with a knife.
Seven were charged with wounding with attempt to murder, six were charged with being part of a criminal group and other charges were also laid.
“Outlaw motorcycle gangs pose a serious crime threat to our communities,” ACT Policing’s Detective Acting Inspector Mark Battye told the media on Thursday (4 September).
“When outlaw motorcycle gangs can walk into a business in the middle of the day, and in such an emboldened and brazen way to [allegedly] commit crime of this nature, it’s an issue for all of us.”
Police put up tape and cordoned off part of Crawford Street outside the Crawford Centre in Queanbeyan on 8 August. Photos: Claire Fenwicke.
Detective Chief Inspector Keith Price from NSW Police said both stabbing victims were out of hospital and were recovering from their wounds.
“The incident was a targeted attack against the males by a number of OMCG members from the ACT and in NSW,” he alleged.
Chief Inspector Price would not say why police believe the men were targeted, or which OMCG was involved, as the matter was now before the courts, but he did say police believe eight members of that OMCG gang were taken out with this investigation.
“There is no ongoing danger to the public in relation to this,” he said.
“It was [allegedly] a targeted attack between two groups and we’re pretty confident now we have all the members that were involved in it on the day.”
He also said, at this stage, police had no reason to investigate the stabbing victims.
“We knew pretty well instantaneously on the day what had happened,” the chief inspector said.
He said police had worked tirelessly over the last four weeks to get these arrests.
Three men were arrested in Canberra on Wednesday and then faced the ACT Magistrates Court to be extradited to NSW that afternoon, but the court was closed to the media.
More to come.
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