Friday, March 24, 2006

Cyclist Shot: Serial Killer?

Fuck:
Melinda Zygarlicki, 31, was cycling along the Capital City trail near the Rushall station about 9.30 on Tuesday morning when a mystery attacker shot her.
Why was this only reported last night?

In normal people's language this is the Merri creek trail, the main 'greenspace' for North Fitzroy, East Brunswick, Northcote and Thornbury. I suppose it was too much to ask that the families, cycling commuters, joggers and random wandering souls who enter this perfect natural shooting range on a daily basis could have been warned.

Apparently it is 'just another shooting' or 'just another attempted murder'; unworthy of leading story status. Perhaps the editors are as optimistic about homo sapiens as the poor victim:

I want whoever has done this to catch wind of this and see they've totally put me out of action... I'm presuming they didn't do it on purpose but you don't play with guns. It's irresponsible, it's stupid.
Understandably she is trying to cope and make sense of the situation, but I'm pretty sure she's wrong.

Try this scenario: she was hunted, because she is human. The sniper crept down, perhaps before dawn even, and found a concealed place to sit and observe. Possibly they had the location scoped out days earlier. Merri creek at that point runs through a thickly tree-lined gully probably 30m deep by 100m across. There is plenty of cover- people cross it via bridges or work their way along a single path. It appears the sniper had a concealed escape route sounded out as well.

She was shot in the chest while crossing the bridge. If they were shooting at a target at gound level and missed they would not have hit someone on the bridge.

She was probably chosen because all the elements were right, presumably, unless a witness is found, this included a clean getaway. She was shot, and it was attempted murder.

The motive was pure homocide.

I hope I'm wrong, otherwise it is likely they will do it again. It is possible they will do it until they are caught.

...

UPDATE: Thankfully, I am wrong, or so it appears as this story continues to break. A 31 year old man has turned himself in, apparently saying it was an accident. Will keep watching as details emerge...

Whether accident or on purpose, the question still remains; would this have happened with a knife, or even a bow and arrow?

6 comments:

Don Quixote said...

Haven't they caught the guy? I thought I'd heard it on the radio this morning.

Armagnac Esq said...

Hell, I'll go browsing. The original news appeared hours earlier on radio than in regular media, so it's possible.

Hopefully you're right. And hopefully it turns out I'm wrong above and it's an accident.

hazelblackberry said...

Homocide? Good Lord.

Kerryn Goldsworthy said...

And the other question remains: what was he doing with 'a firearm' at that time in that place? What did he think it was all right to be shooting, in an inner suburb of Melbourne where three of my closest friends live and one of them cycles across that bridge every day, FFS? What was he doing, exercising his right to bear arms?

If I were Mao I would be so hissing at a door right now.

(How are M&M, anyway?)

cfsmtb said...

I've had a damn good spray about it on my blog. As I said, when I first heard the news yesterday afternoon, before the suspect turned themselves in, I really didn't believe that some Sarajevo-style sniper was loose down the creek. But a 22 has a lethal range of about 1600m, so where the hell did they *accidently* discharge the weapon from?!?

Needless to say the local cycling community are not happy about it, what if some numbnut gets it in their head to do a copycat?

BwcaBrownie said...

... and that supports the restrictions on firearms: the shooter does not need to be aiming at the victim to cause injury.
"lets shoot at that brick wall!"

Oops, ricochet!".

precisely.
guns and cars = very very bad.