 Thank you ladies and gentlemen for coming to the conference this morning. The situation is that about 2.30am this morning police were notified of the location of a deceased male on Hooker Boulevard at Broadbeach Waters in between Sunshine Boulevard and Rio Vista Boulevard. Police attended. They have located a 36 year old deceased male. The indications are the person has sustained a gunshot wound and subsequently deceased. Inquiries have identified the victim at this point and investigations continuing at the moment in order to locate his next of kin and identify his last movements. We would be seeking the assistance of the public or any members of the public who were in the vicinity of Hooker Boulevard between Rio Vista Boulevard and Sunshine Boulevard between about 2.30am who may have seen anything suspicious or heard anything suspicious or in fact any person who may have travelled the whole length of Hooker Boulevard in the early hours of the morning who may have again seen anything suspicious or in particular saw a male person walking along the road. A male person wearing a light blue hooded jacket and light grey jeans. Is that the deceased person? Yes. You mentioned just the one gunshot wound. What we can say at this stage is that indications are that he has sustained a gunshot wound. We can't speculate at this stage on how many until the postmortem is conducted. Where is the gunshot wound? It's to the torso. From the front? No. I don't want to particularise exactly where it is at this point but it's to the torso. It's certainly not three shots to the back as the media have been reporting. Do you know there was more than one shot fired? Are there multiple shell casings there? We have located a number of ejected cartridge cases at the scene but the search of the area is still being conducted as we speak. Does that indicate a semi-automatic weapon being used? Our ballistics specialists have the scene. They are examining the ejected cartridge cases and they will be able to determine the type of weapon used but at this point in time I'm not prepared to enlarge on that at this stage. Do you think he was walking along the road and shot or was he trying out of a car? We don't know. Is the victim known to police? He has been known to police but at this stage as I say inquiries are continuing to identify his full background, his movements. Any links to biker gangs or perhaps? At this point in time we haven't identified any link to any OMCGs. Do you think it was a premeditated thing or was it random from preliminary investigations? I don't know. Where exactly was his body found? The body was located on the left side of the road as you are heading away from Broad Beach on Hooker Boulevard at the intersection with Coakus Drive I think it is. So on the main arterial road the body was lying on the road? You've got the main Hooker Boulevard and you've got an intersection. The intersection is a minor road and as you turn left into that minor road it's basically just on that centre of that intersection there. But it was actually on the mission and on the road? Yes, yes. So is it possible that there could have been cars driving past him along Hooker Boulevard and not seen the body? I think anybody driving along would have seen it and in fact the police were notified by a security officer who came across the body and obviously initial thoughts were that the person had possibly been hit by a car Being at links to any other recent violent crimes? Well in any investigation of this kind we would look for any links with other offences. It's certainly too early to say in relation to this matter at this time. We're in the early stages and as I say we've only just recently identified the victim and inquiries that are being undertaken now in order to identify his movements. The victim was from that area? The victim, well inquiries are still continuing in relation to his history. We do know that he has resided on the Gold Coast but we can't be specific at this date as to where he resides. Did witnesses hear any yelling? Was there anything precipitating shooting? No. Any reports of gunshots being heard? We've conducted doorknocks of the area and we have located some people who've heard what they believe were gunshots around about the 2.20 to 2.30 am. How many gunshots did they hear? Well that varies at this stage so inquiries are still continuing statements of being obtained from those people so we'll try to narrow that down. Will this be a case of Task Force Resolve? The investigation is currently being undertaken by detectives from our southern investigative group and they are being assisted by officers from the homicide investigation group in Task Force Resolve. Just on Task Force Resolve, I know that they've got a hand in this one as well. I remember when they were informed that there were 8 serious crimes that were investigating. Is this now bringing up to 11? Do you know? No, this is, as I say, this matter is being investigated by the southern investigative group and they're being supported at this point by Task Force Resolve. Thoughts on another gun crime on the coast date? Sorry? Thoughts on another gun crime on the coast? We're obviously concerned about any incident that involves a firearm. We obviously treat these matters very seriously and we put a lot of efforts and a lot of resources into investigating not only these matters but also anything in relation to unlicensed firearms. Is it too easy to get an unlicensed firearm? It would appear that there are. Well I can't comment on how easy it is but obviously we've had a number of incidents involving firearms. We are actively investigating those and as you're probably aware that we executed a search warrant yesterday and recovered quite a number of illegal guns yesterday afternoon. So the police are constantly following these matters up, constantly conducting investigations in relation to firearms and we are having some successes. Including Damien Leading's death, this is the third fatal shooting. Have you ever seen this level of violence on the Gold Coast before? Well I've only been on the Gold Coast for a number of years. Certainly any shooting whether it's on the Gold Coast or otherwise is not acceptable. We treat all shootings seriously whether they're fatal or otherwise. Certainly a lot of resources will go into this investigation. As I say we're being supported by the Homicide Investigation Group and Task Force Resolve. We hope to have this matter finalised as soon as possible. How concerned are you about the escalation in this kind of crime? Any offence involving a firearm is of concern to the police and that's why we put so many resources into it. Is there any indication this is a drive-by shooting? No we don't know at this stage as I say it's early days. All we have at the moment is a deceased male person lying on the road. How did you identify him? Just through normal police procedures. Is he well known to police? No. Do you have ID on him and a wallet on him? I don't want to talk about what he had on him. Residents around that area are saying that they're shocked by the crime and some of them are scared. Do they have a reason to be scared that there might be somebody out on the loose that is a threat to them? Well I don't think so. It's very difficult to say at this stage as to what the motive was for this particular offence. We have had a number of shootings as you're well aware. The shootings are generally between specific groups of people. It's generally not involving the average member of the public. It's generally involving specific groups of people or domestic related. Every day we have thousands and thousands of people attend the Gold Coast and they come for the day and they leave without being confronted by any crime whatsoever. So I would reassure the public that the average member of the public shouldn't be concerned and we are putting as many resources as we can obviously into finalising this matter. Was the man found dead? Was he armed? No. Those weapons you found yesterday in that way, can you just elaborate on where that was and what you actually found? I don't have the details actually with me at the moment, but I know that they recovered handguns and a shotgun and drugs. How many guns were found? Three I think. The man's criminal history is it extensive? No. And what is it for? I don't want to go into the actual details of it, but it's not extensive. And he's not linked to any known sort of yellow gang. I don't mind that this is very early in the piece. The scene itself is still being investigated and the police are only just, as we speak, moving back to the major incident room to conduct further investigation. So we can't be sure at this stage as to what the motive is or who his associates are or anything at this point in time. That will evolve throughout the day. Do you have any security footage? That's a part of our normal investigation would be to gather security footage from every available source and that's being done there. Do you know roughly how many detectives are working on it all up? Look, it'll probably increase throughout the day and it will depend on how the investigation evolves, but probably as of this morning we would have had probably 15. His associates are they known to the police? We haven't got to that point yet. We've identified all the associates. Is Hydra involved? No, not at this point. Those weapons that were recovered yesterday just in regards to what I mentioned before about obtaining the legal firearms on the Gold Coast. How did you find those ones yesterday? It was during a raid in service paradise in East England. Not much of the details, but firearms and a shotgun are all legal. Well, as I say, the police on the Gold Coast are constantly investigating and following up information in relation to information of criminals having guns and this was just another one of those investigations that the police have followed through. Identify the suspects, execute a search warrant and recover the guns. Do you think what we're seeing at the moment is a spike in gun crimes or is it a trend that's sort of emerging on the Gold Coast? I don't know whether it's actually a spike in guns, but we've certainly had our fair share in recent times of serious offences involving guns. It's not only on the Gold Coast, obviously it occurs in other places, but as far as we're concerned, even one offence involving a gun is one too many, so we're happy to put as many resources into it as we possibly can. Is it fair to say, Dave, that given the three weapons recovered yesterday and the one in the drain pipe at Revena on Monday, that the police have recovered four illegal weapons this week? Well, that's correct, it is. There's no suggested link to that, to the Tavern incident? No. As more shootings happen on the Gold Coast, do you think there's more demand for police? That's sort of an open-ended question. We've had a significant increase in the number of police on the Gold Coast in recent times, including detectives, so nevertheless, these incidents still occur. Dave, there was figures come out yesterday that the funding on the Gold Coast has reduced by 10%. Is that a figures leasing levels? I don't want to talk about budgets, obviously, and staffing issues. We're here to talk about this particular job, and as I say, we've got sufficient resources at this point to manage this job. How are you going to stop these gun violence? Well, you know, it's probably fair to say that these types of offences are going to happen in the future. They've happened in the past and they'll continue to occur. We will continue to respond to them. We will put all our resources into investigating them as they occur, and we've had significant success in the past and we hope to do so in the future. Do you know what this man was doing on Hooker Boulevard at 2 in the morning? No. And I would ask the media to... You know, you're asking lots of questions here, which is fine, but I would ask you to reinforce that assistance to the public or that request for assistance from the public. We are particularly interested in anybody that was on Hooker Boulevard in the early hours of the morning, the whole length of Hooker Boulevard who may have seen this person walking down the road, description being a male 36 years wearing a light blue hooded jacket and light grey jeans, or particularly in relation to that area between Sunshine Boulevard and Rio Vista Boulevard. As it stands at the moment, we merely have a body located on the road. We would seek the assistance of anybody who saw him prior to the offence occurring or saw anything suspicious or heard anything suspicious. Are you looking for any specific type of car or other person? Not at this time. Are there any sort of leads that you've got at the moment that you're showing any signs of promise, Dave? Well, early days, as I say, it's still very early days and as we speak, the detectives are gathering in the major incident room and we'll be following up. Now he's been identified, that'll give us some areas to start looking. Is it possible he was forced out of the car? He may have been travelling with people? At the moment, we haven't notified next to kin. For the moment, we're concentrating on identifying his residents, identifying his movements, identifying his next to kin. We know what suburb he was from. Well, as I said earlier, we can't categorically say at this stage where he's living, we have some ideas, but we need to follow that through and I can't speculate on that. Do you think he'll be the very least any name later in the day? That's possible. It'll depend on just next to kin and just how the investigation goes.