By Kyra Gillespie
Police are investigating the circumstances surrounding an alleged firearms incident which occurred in Pakenham on Monday 25 March.
Officers were called to Livingston Boulevard about 6.10pm after reports that four men, one armed with a firearm, were seen arguing in the street.
Police were seen searching the area in bullet proof vests.
The three victims who engaged with the alleged gunman have been spoken to by police.
There have been no reported injuries and police have quashed reports of gunfire.
“No shots were fired as far as we’re concerned,” Senior Constable Adam West said.
No arrests have been made and the investigation is ongoing.
A Pakenham mother of two, who wishes to remain anonymous, was the one who first called triple zero.
She was pulling out of the school after picking up her son and daughter when she saw four men on the street.
“The guy was less than a metre from my car as I pulled out of the school,” she said.
“He absolutely held a black, what looked to be a sawn off shot gun pointed at another man behind him as they ran down the street.
“It was really scary; at first I thought they were play fighting with a water gun or something like that. Then I saw the looks on their faces and realised they were dead serious.
“The guy that had the gun turned around and aimed it at the guy behind him. I screamed at my kids to duck and just drove through it and called the police. He didn’t fire, just aimed the gun.”
She described the alleged gunman as tanned and dressed in dark clothing. The two men giving chase were caucasian; one looked like he was in his early twenties and the other early thirties.
She said she didn’t think the men were known to one another from what she witnessed.
“It was quite bizarre, because the unarmed men were running after the armed one. It was almost like he’d held up a bottle shop and the others came face-to-face with him. I don’t know of course, but that’s what I saw.”
Her two children, aged eight and seven, witnessed the whole thing.
“My daughter was saying she was worried the man would come to our house because he knows what the car looks like.
“It was strange because my son never usually gets in the car willingly, but today he did. So we left the school a bit earlier.
“If we’d been any later we would have been face to face without the protection of the car.”
Heritage Springs shopping centre and Pakenham Springs Primary School were blocked off by police as a precaution around 8.00pm.
The shopping centre remained open during the incident, a Coles employee confirmed.
“We were okay, police were around but the centre remained open. There’s nothing going on inside the centre now.”
Henty Estate residents were told to stay indoors by police.
The Gazette will provide more information as it becomes available.
