The Offence of Shooting a Firearm at a Dwelling House in NSW

Officers from South Sydney Police Area Command executed a high-risk search warrant at a home on Gadigal land on Phillp Street in Waterloo on Thursday 27 November 2025. Three men aged 20 and a 19-year-old man were arrested and taken to Surry Hills police station in relation to a shooting at a home on Dharug land on Aberdeen Street in the western Sydney suburb of Bossley Park.

NSW police officers were initially called on to attend the Bossley Park residence at around 6.30 am on Friday, 21 November. Fairfield City Police Area Command officers found that several shots had been fired upon the Aberdeen Street residence from an Audi sedan, which then took off. And no residents inside the house were harmed during the ‘public place shooting’ incident.

The Audi was later located crashed nearby Bossley Park’s Mimosa and Prairie Vale Road intersection. NSW police located an automatic firearm in the wreckage, which was sent off for forensic examination.

Detectives from Strike Force Stagaar commenced an investigation into the shooting, with a 16-year-old boy and a 22-year-old man arrested in relation to the incident that same day, and their matter continues to be before the courts.

As for last Friday’s raid, South Sydney police located a Glock pistol and two gel blasters, which are illegal in NSW without a firearm licence. Officers also found ammunition, firearm magazines and $18,000 in cash.

All four men inside the residence were charged at the Surry Hills copshop, but only the charges laid against the 19-year-old reflected participation in the Bossley Park drive-by shooting. Each of the 20-year-olds had various firearm offences laid against their names, while one of them had three outstanding warrants against him in respect of robbery, stealing and domestic violence.

Drive-by shooting targeting house

In respect of the drive-by shooting on the Bossley Park residence, the 19-year-old has been charged with an aggravated form of the offence. The regular offence of firing a firearm at a dwelling house or other building under subsection 93GA(1) of the Crimes Act 1900 (NSW) carries a maximum penalty of 14 years in prison.

For a prosecution to establish the offence, it needs to prove beyond reasonable doubt that an individual discharged a firearm at a house or some other type of building, “with reckless disregard for the safety of any person”. The prosecution is not required to additionally prove that the person put another’s life in danger.

Subsection 93GA(3) further provides that if the court can’t find an accused guilty of the section 93GA offence, but it’s possible to convict under the section 93G offence of causing danger with a firearm, or otherwise, under the section 93H offence of trespassing with a firearm or firing into a building, then the court can convict on these alternatives if the evidence is there.

The 93GA shoot at a house offence was inserted into the Crimes Act in December 2003, and since August 2015, it carries a standard non-parole period of 5 years. An SNPP is a guidepost or reference point for a sentencing judge, when determining the minimum term an offender must spend behind bars before being eligible to apply for release on parole.

In December 2006, an aggravated version of the 93GA offence was inserted under subsection 93GA(1A), which involves firing a firearm at a dwelling house or into a building, during a public disorder. This carries up to 16 years imprisonment. A public disorder is a riot or other civil disturbance that seriously risks public safety.

The 19-year-old boy is facing one count of the second aggravated form of this offence, which was inserted under 93GA(1B) in April 2012. This comprises of shooting a firearm at a dwelling house as part of organised criminal activity, and it carries up to 16 years prison time.

Both aggravated forms of the 93GA offence carry an SNPP of 6 years. At the same time that the organised crime version of the offence was enacted, so too was subsection 93GA(4), which provides that if a court cannot convict an accused under the subsection 93GA(1A) or subsection 93GA(1B) offences, then they can fall back on a subsection 93GA(1) conviction if possible.

The defences available for shooting at a house

A person accused of a section 93GA offence has several defences open to them to argue before the court.

This includes self-defence, which sits under section 418 of the Crimes Act . This defence suggests that an individual fired upon a dwelling house to protect themselves against someone inside attempting to do them harm.

The defence of duress is also available. Duress involves an accused arguing that they perpetrated a crime due to a threat that had been made against them or a love-one. The suggested harm posed by the threat must be serious enough to warrant the action.

Another defence open to a charge against section 93GA is necessity, which means the accused undertook illegal action as they were trying to avoid more dire circumstances that would stand if the criminal offending had not taken place.

In the event evidence of any such defence is raised, the prosecution must then prove beyond reasonable doubt that it does not apply in the circumstances. The accused person is entitled to an acquittal if the prosecution is unable to do this.

Other offences the teen is facing

The 19-year-old is further facing a charge of participate in a criminal group, which sits under subsection 93T(1) of the Crimes Act. This offence carries 5 years, and it holds if the prosecution shows that the person knowingly participated or should have known they were. An aggravated form of the offence under subsection 93T(1A) carries 10 years if the accused directed criminal activities.

The teen is also facing one count of being carried in conveyance taken without the consent of the owner, contrary to section 154A(1)(b) of the Crimes Act. The prosecution will have to show that the 19-year-old was riding in the stolen Audi whilst it was being driven by someone else, and if it does, it can sentence him to up to 5 years in prison.

The crime of unauthorised possession of a prohibited firearm carries up to 14 years. The teenager is also facing one count of this offence.

The last offence is one count of possessing a dedicated encrypted criminal communication device or DECCD to facilitate serious criminal activity, contrary to section 192P of the Crimes Act, which carries up to 3 years in prison. 

A DECCD is a mobile electronic device designed to allow a criminal group to communicate internally in an encrypted manner, while avoiding law enforcement detection.

Weapons offences trending downwards

Despite the idea that knife crime is on the rise and recurring periodic news items about drug-related organised crime murders, the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research (BOCSAR) advises that violent offences using weapons are on the decline. Assaults involving knives, nonfatal shootings, robberies and other assaults have all been trending downwards significantly over the last 20 years.

Indeed, crime has been trending downwards in general in NSW ever since the turn of the century, and this includes knife crime and firearm offences, along with homicide-related offences.