Three youths have been charged with weapons offences following reports of shots being fired in the country town of Tara—close to Wieambilla, where a deadly siege took place last month.
The incident comes amid a spate of youth-oriented crime in Queensland, Australia, that has sparked criticism of the Labor government’s handling of young offenders.
On the evening of Jan. 18, police were dispatched to a residence where shots were reported to have been fired from.
Queensland Police say they uncovered a 0.22 calibre rifle and discharged projectiles and cartridges at the scene.
Four juveniles were then taken into custody at the Tara Police Station.
Later two 16-year-olds were charged with seven offences each—four weapons offences and three counts of wilful damage—police told reporters in comments obtained by The Guardian.
A third 14-year-old boy was charged with the same offences and cautioned, while the fourth, a 15-year-old, was released.
“Guns are extremely dangerous. Any discharge of a firearm in a public place creates a significant risk to the community,” police told reporters.
“People could have been seriously injured or worse as a result of this incident yesterday.”
Police said the youths were known to them.
A Juvenile Crime Wave in Queensland?
The actions of the four youths in Tara come as the state deals with ongoing incidents of violent crime committed by juveniles in Queensland.Most notably, the fatal stabbing of 41-year-old Emma Lovell in Brisbane’s North Lakes.
Lovell with her husband—both new migrants from the United Kingdom—were defending their home from two 17-year-olds who broke into their property at around 11.30 p.m. on Boxing Day (Dec. 26).
Lovell suffered stab wounds to her chest and later succumbed to her injuries. Her husband was treated at the hospital.
The boys were each charged with one count of murder, attempted murder, and entering a dwelling with intent in company.
Do the Laws Need Changing?
The incident sparked Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk to announce a suite of measures to deal with youth crime, including upping penalties for crimes committed at night, increasing the maximum penalty for stealing a car and rising penalties for boasting about crime online.Further, the plan includes constructing two new youth detention centres and for judges and magistrates to consider bail and criminal history when sentencing.
Queensland federal Senator Matt Canavan has said incidents of law-breaking have increased since 2019 since the current government changed the Youth Justice Act to be softer on imprisonment.
“The changes told judges that the principle should be ‘detention as a last resort,’ and that ’the bail decision-making framework‘ incorporated an ’explicit presumption in favour of release.'”
Yet Molly McCarthy, a research fellow at Griffith University’s Criminology Institute, who has studied Queensland’s youth crime trends for 12 years, said there was a drop in youth offending.
“A youth crime wave doesn’t make sense in the context of the decline the data shows, but for some communities, the rise in prolific reoffending will be acutely felt.”
