3 September 2021

Raging Narrabundah shooter 'lost control' before firing at family's home, court told

| Albert McKnight
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Brodie Owen Antoniak

Brodie Owen Antoniak, 32, is facing a jail sentence over a shooting in Narrabundah. Photo: Facebook.

A drug and alcohol-fuelled shooter lost control due to a dispute over a ute before firing on a family’s home in Narrabundah, a court has been told.

Brodie Owen Antoniak, 32, is facing a jail sentence after shooting at the house where his long-time friend lived with their partner and two infants on 3 November 2020.

On Thursday (2 September), Antoniak’s lawyer, Michael Kukulies-Smith of Kamy Saeedi Law, told the ACT Supreme Court his client had experienced a “loss of control” that was brought about due to “a drug and alcohol-fuelled rage”.

He said his client had left his car at his friend’s house before the dispute arose when he couldn’t access the vehicle, and a suggestion was made that his future victims believed the car was theirs.

While Mr Kukulies-Smith conceded jail was appropriate, he argued for his client to be sentenced to an intensive corrections order which would allow him to be released into the community to assist with his rehabilitation.

Acting Justice Verity McWilliam said he was angry, on drugs and the consequences were “so violent”.

“And that’s with a friend, someone who is a friend of 30 years,” she said.

“Anyway, those we love the most are often those who cause the most anxiety and frustration.”

READ ALSO Shooter admits he fired gun at family’s home in Narrabundah

Agreed court documents for Antoniak show on 3 November 2020, he, a woman, and a person police allege to be Jordan Elias Crooke, travelled from Batemans Bay to Canberra to collect the ute. But when they arrived about midday, an argument began over the car.

The trio left and drove the woman home, then Antoniak returned to the Narrabundah house at about 2:40 pm in a Holden Commodore allegedly driven by Mr Crooke.

Antoniak yelled at his friend to come out of the house. He kicked the building’s aluminium gate, denting it, then jumped onto the roof of a Ford Focus before kicking its windscreen, leaving a large foot-sized hole in the glass.

When his friend and their partner came out of the house, he pulled a 50 cm-long sawn-off rifle out of his car and pointed it towards his friend.

He fired as the couple fled inside, hitting the doorway.

Jordan Crooke (centre, wearing a navy hoodie) from Batemans Bay exits the ACT Courts with supporters earlier this year. Photo: Albert McKnight.

Antoniak’s friend yelled out to warn his family. His partner grabbed their two children, both under the age of two, and hid in the bathroom while he called Triple Zero.

Antoniak fired several more shots towards the house before starting to drive away. But he did a U-turn and returned to fire more shots before finally leaving.

Prosecutor Margaret Smith said the crimes were serious, having occurred in a residential area in the middle of the day, and neighbours were close enough to hear what was going on.

She also said there was evidence of planning, as Antoniak had the dispute with his friend, left, dropped the woman off at her house, collected his gun, and returned later.

“If it was a simple loss of control, that loss of control would have occurred at that earlier time,” she said.

READ ALSO Batemans Bay man who allegedly drove car in Narrabundah shooting granted bail

Ms Smith said Antoniak was “intimately aware” of the location as he had lived there for a period of time, so he would have known his victims’ children were at the home when he saw the adults at the front door.

She also said a firearm report had found five projectiles hit the house.

Antoniak has already spent about 10 months in jail on remand. He pleaded guilty to charges of discharging loaded arms, damaging property and unauthorised use of a prohibited firearm.

Justice McWilliam said she would reserve her decision and hand down her sentence on 9 September.

Antoniak’s alleged driver during the attack, 22-year-old Mr Crooke from Batemans Bay, was released on bail in June after police extradited him from NSW to the ACT to face his charges. He remains before the courts.

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“..Triple Zero” eleven spaces to communicate “000”. funny

Gutless, coward cretins with guns!

So he had a “sawn-off rifle”.

A sawn-off weapon is not something you generally have just lying around (I wonder if it really was a rifle, or if it was a shotgun. Most reporters seem too stupid to understand the difference).

That seems to imply he had a weapon for illegal purposes. If so, surely there should be a consequence for that.

Please, please, ban this muppet from ever owning a firearm.

And give him a real sentence. Most likely the firearm was intended to be used for something illegal.

Capital Retro2:54 pm 03 Sep 21

“She also said a firearm report had found five projectiles hit the house.”

It was a rifle.

That does seem likely.

He could have been using buckshot and not be a very accurate shot, but yeah it sounds most likely it was a rifle.

Hopefully he will never be able to get a firearm license again (assuming he ever had one).

Why does that line alone make it a rifle? A shot gun could have had 5 projectile’s hitting the house in one go?

Capital Retro1:04 pm 04 Sep 21

There is a distinct difference between a projectile and a pellet of shot.

A projectile is a made to be fired through a barrel of the same size with rifling. It is also called a bullet and it is shaped accordingly. A shortened barrel rifle is still reasonably accurate over short distances.

Shot is perfectly round and it fired through a barrel with no rifling. Twelve gauge 00 (buckshot) shotgun shells have 9 pellets and they usually stay in a tight group but if they were fired through a sawn off barrel they may have scattered. It is reported that 5 plus several more shots were fired so if there were 8 shots fired there would have 72 pellets scattered all over the place and a lot more that 5 would have hit the house.

It may have indeed been a rifle, but I stand by my claim that most reporters seem too stupid to understand the difference between a rifle and shotgun. Please see the ABC News:

“The court was told he left the property and returned to the house with a sawn-off shotgun before jumping on the roof of another vehicle, putting his foot through the windscreen.”

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-09-09/canberra-man-brodie-antoniak-jailed-over-narrabundah-shooting/100447758

So was it a rifle or shotgun?

If it was a rifle, was the court really told it was a shotgun, or is the ABC being less than accurate and truthful?

Even if one witness stated it was a rifle, but it was actually a shotgun, then it still isn’t a good look for the ABC to to be reporting from an incorrect witness instead of the truth.

If it was indeed a rifle, then I suppose the RIOTACT can reasonably claim to be a more accurate source of news than the ABC.

Does this pedantry matter – a sawn-off firearm of some description?

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