A man has been hit with a string of charges over a dramatic siege involving an innocent father and his baby, who were held inside their own home for hours.
The ordeal started at about 3.40pm on Tuesday when a police helicopter followed a car in Melbourne’s west that was believed to have been stolen in a carjacking in Snake Valley earlier in the day, Victoria Police said.
Police allege the man got out of the car and fired shots at officers with a high-powered rifle before running into a stranger’s house at Weir Views, 22km west of Melbourne’s CBD.
There he found the father and his baby, who were held inside as police negotiated for several hours on Tuesday night before they finally left the home two hours later.
Television helicopter footage captured the dramatic moment the young child was rescued from the home and placed into an armed police officer’s waiting arms.
The toddler’s father was seen escaping from the home a short time later. Neither he or child were injured during the incident.
Police snipers from the Special Operations Group were spotted standing on a nearby roof as specialist officers negotiated with the armed offender.
The man allegedly fired at police once again before a highly trained police dog was deployed to assist with the man’s arrest shortly after 6pm.
Images from a news helicopter show two armed personnel, wearing green fatigues, on a roof facing a neighbouring home during the siege on Tuesday (pictured)
A shirtless man is seen being treated by paramedics at the scene in Weir Views, Melbourne
The man sustained a dog bite injury during the arrest and was taken to hospital under police guard.
A shirtless man was seen handcuffed outside the front of a home surrounded by heavily armed officers while being treated by paramedics.
On Friday, the 26-year-old was charged with range of offences including aggravated carjacking, two counts of false imprisonment, five counts of assaulting police and making threats to kill.
Images from a news helicopter show two armed personnel, wearing green fatigues, on a roof facing a neighbouring home. The home they were focusing had a pink children’s bike leaning on the outside wall.
Residents in the vicinity of Leon Drive were ordered by police to remain inside until further notice.
Television helicopter footage captured the dramatic moment the young child was rescued from the home and placed into an armed police officer’s waiting arms (pictured)
Amanda McGregor was picking up her toddler from daycare when she returned to unfolding hostage incident next door.
‘I think they jumped my fence to get to the next door, my neighbour also said she saw a lot of commotion at the front of the property at first,’ she told the Herald Sun.
She described her next door neighbour as ‘lovely’.
‘I don’t know how they have physically got into his house to keep him and his baby hostage. Thank God his wife wasn’t there,’ she said.
‘He would probably have been resting because he works at 3am in the mornings.’
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