Warning: This story contains the names and images of Indigenous people who have died.
Police hunting for an allegedly armed and dangerous man accused of killing three people in western NSW are moving from property to property as they scour the remote township where he was last possibly sighted.
Officers are surging into Mount Hope after reports that Julian Ingram, 37, was seen there on the weekend. Residents in the search area have been urged to remain indoors and visitors and campers to leave.
Ingram is accused of shooting dead his heavily pregnant former partner, Sophie Quinn, 24 and her friend John Harris, 32, on Bokhara Street, Lake Cargelligo, before travelling to Walker Street and killing Sophie’s aunt Nerida Quinn, 50.
NSW Police Assistant Commissioner Andrew Holland said on Monday there were multiple properties under observation in Mount Hope, about an hour north-west of Lake Cargelligo.
“Each of those premises has multiple sheds, properties, houses, and our plan is to clear those premises in a strategic pattern,” he said.
“Given that the [alleged] offender is considered armed and dangerous, we are using the tactical operations team,” Holland said.
Rescue and bomb disposal units, drone squads and other aircraft, highway patrols and general duties police officers from across the region are also in Mount Hope assisting the search.
Holland did not say how many properties had already been cleared to avoid revealing the search pattern that police are continuing to work through.
“We have a number of properties that are yet to be searched and cleared,” Holland said.
Police have already cleared properties in Lake Cargelligo, Euabalong and Murrin Bridge, an Indigenous community where Ingram had often visited friends.
Holland suggested that any residents in the search area feeling insecure should remain in their homes.
“But again, they are not in lockdown. They can still freely travel about the area.
“For those people that are camping in the area or those people just visiting, my suggestion would be it’s probably time to go home,” Holland said.
The search for Ingram, also known as Pierpoint, will continue “at its current intensity” in the days to come, Holland said, noting the search conditions are not ideal.
“The temperature is expected to be about 45 degrees today … but again, the heat will not stop us,” he said.
The sole survivor of the alleged shooting rampage, Kaleb Macqueen, 19, told Nine News on Sunday that Ingram laughed as he shot the older Quinn, wounding him in the process.
“She was holding her neck and he was laughing and [allegedly] gave her one good shot to the head and she was gone.
“It was fight or flight – I just had to save myself, not that I could have done anything with Nerida anyway. I would have probably ended up dying if I went over to [her],” he said.
Macqueen sustained serious shotgun wounds to his head, arm, shoulder and leg and was taken to Canberra Hospital for treatment.
The rampage has prompted a warning from Domestic Violence NSW that the justice system was operating in a vacuum, blinding it to the risks posed by alleged repeat or escalating domestic violence offenders.
Court records showed Ingram had been issued six AVOs, protecting five people, including Sophie Quinn, since 2014.
Footage aired by Nine News allegedly showed Ingram in an altercation outside Macqueen’s house weeks before the shooting, armed with a knife.
A voice from behind the camera yells to “Sophie” that the incident was being recorded.
Support is available from the National Sexual Assault, Domestic and Family Violence Counselling Service (1800RESPECT) on 1800 737 732.
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Jack Gramenz is a breaking news reporter at The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via email.
