Miss Boffin alerts us to a random shooting of a cyclist in the inner Melbourne suburb of Fitzroy.

Here are some of the news reports from The Age, The Herald Sun, and ABC Online.

I am nothing short of flabbergasted.

As Miss Boffin reported, the shooter - a 31 year old idiot - has surrendered to police and is likely to be charged on summons. Apparently he "may have accidentally discharged a firearm" which shot Melinda Zygarlicki in the chest as she rode across the bridge at Rushall station.

Test

Let's put this "accidentally discharged" excuse to the test. The bridge at Rushall station is a quite long bridge over a point where the Merri Creek carves a fairly steep-sided little valley. In other words, you can't get particularly close to this bridge other than from the pathway at either end. And even if the shooter were standing at the end of the bridge it would be a pretty long shot to accidentally hit someone on the bridge.

Hypothesis

So to make a couple of assumptions about the circumstances of this "accidental discharge": that the shooter lives in one of the houses facing the bridge and that he was spending this pleasant sunny morning sitting on his back step cleaning his guns when one of them went off. Clearly the chances of an accidental discharge hitting a random passer-by - some hundred or more metres away and in the chest no less - are so vanishingly remote as to be near impossible.

Another hypothesis

Another explanation, far more plausible and simple in my view, is that the shooter quite deliberately aimed and fired at the victim.

Words fail me to describe the level of stupidity that would motivate such an act.

Thoughts

Anyway, I'd like to echo Miss Boffin's concerns for the victim and her family. Let's hope this doesn't discourage Melinda from cycling and that she's fit enough to take up her new teaching position next week.

Comments

pedaller

A very distressing story, but I'm pleased to note that the incident was obviously taken very seriously by the police. Let's hope we don't see a spate of "copy cat" "accidental shootings" over the coming weeks and months.

Kiril, The Cycling Dude

This story is just astonishing.

Here in SoCal, where we are used to Road Rage incidents on freeeways, I will not be suprised to one day hear of some F*** in an SUV taking potshots at a cyclist "Blocking his path".

I've been shoved in the stomach by a passenger in a car passing me, once, but going only 5mph saved me from hitting the pavement.