A woman and a teenage girl have been injured and an 18-year-old charged with a string of offences after an alleged shooting in Toowoomba, ahead of a community forum at which tensions over a perceived youth crime crisis are expected to come to a head.
The Queensland police minister, Mark Ryan, the youth justice minister, Leanne Linard, and the police commissioner, Katarina Carroll, are expected to attend a community safety forum at Toowoomba’s Empire theatre on Wednesday night.
The forum was convened after Robert Brown, 75, was allegedly violently robbed while waiting for a taxi in the CBD earlier this month.
Brown, a photographer, died of his injuries on Monday.
The local newspaper has launched a campaign for “strong leadership” to create “a future where killings and maimings by juvenile offenders isn’t a daily occurrence”.
On Wednesday police said charges had been laid over an alleged shooting at a Toowoomba hotel at about 2.40pm on Tuesday.
Police said an 18-year-old woman had been charged with multiple firearm-related offences after the incident. They alleged the three women involved, who were known to one another, were in the Annand Street hotel when “a firearm was discharged once”.
A 16-year-old girl from Wyreema – about 10km south-west of Toowoomba – suffered a serious injury to her arm and was taken to Brisbane for treatment.
A 37-year-old woman, also from Wyreema, suffered chest and arm injuries and was taken to the Toowoomba hospital. Both were in a stable condition.
Police established a crime scene at the location and arrested the 18-year-old North Toowoomba woman. She was later charged with one count each of grievous bodily harm, wounding, dangerous conduct with a weapon, unlawful possession of weapons and authority required to possess explosives, and is set to face court on Wednesday.
The debate over youth justice is not confined to the Darling Downs, with high-profile crimes over recent months leading major parties to champion more punitive policies that would result in the detention of more children in a state that already leads the country in locking up its youth.
Amid growing human rights concerns at the treatment of young people within the Queensland justice system, a Townsville magistrate last week ordered the release of several children being held on remand in the city’s police watch house – a decision police are set to challenge in the supreme court.
