Melbourne siege: Man charged after innocent father and his baby were trapped inside their home for hours
A man has been hit with a string of charges over a dramatic siege involving an innocent father and his baby, who were held captive in their own home for hours.
The ordeal began about 3.40pm on Tuesday when a police helicopter in Melbourne’s west tracked a car believed to have been stolen in a Snake Valley carjacking earlier in the day, Victoria Police said.
Police allege the man got out of the car and shot at officers with a high-powered rifle before encountering a stranger’s home in Weir Views, 22km west of Melbourne’s CBD.
There he found the father and his baby, who were held inside for several hours on Tuesday evening while police negotiated before finally leaving the house two hours later.
Television helicopter footage captured the dramatic moment the young child was rescued from the home and placed into the waiting arms of an armed police officer.
A short time later, the toddler’s father was seen escaping from the home. Neither he nor the child were injured during the incident.
Police snipers from the Special Operations Group were seen on a nearby roof as specialist officers negotiated with the armed perpetrator.
The man is said to have fired at police again before a highly trained police dog was brought in to assist in the man’s arrest shortly after 6pm.
Footage from a news helicopter shows two armed personnel, dressed in green fatigues, on a roof opposite a neighboring house during the siege on Tuesday (pictured)
A shirtless man is treated at the scene by paramedics in Weir Views, Melbourne
The man suffered a dog bite during the arrest and was taken to hospital under police guard.
A shirtless man was seen handcuffed outside the front of a house, surrounded by heavily armed officers as he was treated by paramedics.
On Friday, the 26-year-old was charged with a series of crimes, including aggravated carjacking, two counts of false imprisonment, five counts of assaulting police and making death threats.
Footage from a news helicopter shows two armed personnel dressed in green fatigues on a roof opposite a neighboring house. In the house they targeted, a pink children’s bicycle stood against the outside wall.
Residents in the Leon Drive area were ordered by police to stay indoors until further notice.
TV helicopter footage captured the dramatic moment the young child was rescued from the home and placed into the waiting arms of an armed police officer (pictured)
Amanda McGregor was picking up her toddler from daycare when she returned to the unfolding hostage incident next door.
“I think they jumped my fence to get to the next door. My neighbor also said she initially saw a lot of commotion at the front of the property,” she told the Herald Sun.
She described her neighbor as “sweet.”
“I don’t know how they physically entered his house to take him and his baby hostage. Thank God his wife wasn’t there,” she said.
“He probably would have rested because he works at three in the morning.”