A tradesman with no criminal ties who was fatally shot outside a home in western Sydney may have died while trying to save his best mate and two young girls, his devastated family says.
Joshua MacDonald, 40, was approaching a property on Bruce Street in Merrylands West on Wednesday afternoon when attackers in a stolen Audi sedan sprayed the area with bullets, striking him in the head and killing him at the scene.
The electrical contractor is understood to have been visiting the address, where some residents are allegedly “well known to police for organised crime activity”.
Authorities have since made clear that Mr MacDonald himself had no connection to organised crime.
His heartbroken aunt and uncle, Darlene and Trevor Norton, have described the Merrylands West shooting as “cold-blooded murder”, saying their nephew’s final moments were spent stepping between danger and his best friend Nick Brown’s two young daughters.
Mr Brown told the Nortons that Mr MacDonald moved to protect the girls as they returned home from school when the gunfire erupted, the family told 7News on Friday.
“That’s Joshua all over. If he’d known those kids were in danger, (or if) anyone was in danger, he’d put himself in front (of them),” Ms Norton said.
Ms Norton also shared a message from Mr Brown honouring his closest friend, who wrote: “I am forever grateful for this beautiful soul. He is my children’s and my own guardian angel.”
A day before Mr MacDonald was killed, on Tuesday, multiple offenders entered a two-storey home in Glen Alpine, near Campbelltown in south-west Sydney, about 3.40am.
They fatally shot Marco Tapia, 23, in his bedroom while his family were home. He was not known to police and only had a traffic offence on his record.
No arrests have been made for the two killings. One line of inquiry for detectives is whether the suspected botched attacks were organised from overseas and carried out by young, local offenders.
However, the Nortons have questioned why authorities, including NSW Police Minister Yasmin Catley, did not do more to prevent the tragedy, saying their nephew should still be alive.
‘Their car was sitting there for 90 minutes. If they (police) already knew that these people next door were being targeted, (then) they had a target on their shoulders,’ Ms Norton told 7News.
‘Why weren’t they patrolling those streets?’
CCTV footage later shared on TikTok captured the moment Mr MacDonald was shot, with the user captioning the video ‘Merrylands pew pew’.
The footage showed a gunman leaning from the rear window of a stolen grey Audi sedan and firing as the vehicle drove past the house. Those responsible remain on the run.
Asked whether NSW Police were doing enough, Ms Norton said: ‘No, they could be doing so much more. So much more.’
‘If it had happened to one of her (Catley’s) family, if it’s happening to any of their family members, I’m sure they’d change their mind.
‘But of course, it’s not happening to any of theirs. It’s all us poor families.’
Despite the back-to-back killings, senior NSW Government ministers have insisted the situation remains ‘under control’.
‘NSW Police are on top of this,’ Acting Premier Prue Car told reporters on Thursday.
Catley also insisted the police and NSW Government were managing the situation.
‘I do not accept this is out of control… we will not surrender our streets to organised crime gangs,’ she said this week, noting there is a new criminal model in Sydney.
‘Let’s be honest here… this is very challenging. Police are doing everything they can.’
Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon said the involvement of overseas-based criminals was making investigations more challenging.
‘(But) those that are committing these offences are onshore,’ Commissioner Lanyon said.
‘I need people to understand there are serious consequences for each and every one of these offences, and we won’t rest until we put them before the court.’
The commissioner said police would increase their presence across Sydney’s south-west while detectives continued their investigations.
When Ms Norton first heard the news of her nephew’s shooting, she said she refused to believe it was Mr MacDonald.
‘I thought it was another Joshua. And then I picked up my phone and just missed calls for the night,’ she said.
Ms Norton said her nephew was hardworking and kind-hearted, and recalled their final text exchange on his birthday – just days before the shooting.
‘Happy birthday, Josh. Hope you have a wonderful day. Love you. See you on the 13th of September. Kiss, kiss, kiss,’ she wrote.
His reply read: ‘Thank you. Can’t wait.’
