Merewether Beach arrest: Driver tries to swim away from police; co-offender ends up in hospital - three men jailed

The shooter was arrested in John Hunter Hospital, bleeding profusely after impaling himself on a broken glass door at Redhead Surf Club following a failed break and enter.

The second man was arrested after running into the surf and trying to swim away from police, who stood on Merewether Beach and waited for him to give up and come back to shore.

The third man was found hiding in the backyard of a house in John Parade, Merewether.

The three men were sentenced in a Sydney District Court on Wednesday. The shooter, 22-year-old Jack Kennedy, was given a non-parole period of just over three years; while his co-offenders, Jamal Dundas and Zane Jordan, both aged 20, were given nearly two years non-parole.

On the night of May 7, 2021, Kennedy had messaged a man named Jesse Edwards to ask if he'd been seeing his ex-girlfriend, and if they'd been exchanging nude photographs, which Mr Edwards denied.

Nonetheless, Kennedy turned up at Mr Edwards' Macquarie Hills home about an hour later, where Mr Edwards' father and stepmother were home alone.

Kennedy fired five shots from a .22 calibre rifle into the house, putting bullet holes through the front door, brickwork at the front of the house and into the ceiling inside the house.

Mr Edwards texted Kennedy to ask why he'd shot up his father's residence, to which Kennedy replied "you're next", according to an agreed statement of facts read out on sentence.

Mr Edwards sent another message saying "why did you take it to a family home" to which Kennedy said "why did you f--- C", and said he'd see him soon, and to "Get all ya mates too".

Dundas and Jordan joined Kennedy shortly afterwards and drove with him to Redhead Surf Club in a stolen Audi, the same car Kennedy had used to visit Mr Edwards' family home.

The three men covered their faces. One picked up a metal stool and threw it at the front glass door of the club until it smashed. As Kennedy was climbing through he slipped and impaled his leg on a glass shard. He was helped off the glass door, bleeding profusely, and into the stolen Audi which was reversed up to where he was standing.

The two men, with Jordan behind the wheel, dumped Kennedy at Belmont Hospital. Kennedy discharged himself and his sister and ex-girlfriend drove him to John Hunter Hospital.

Meanwhile, police chased the two men in the Audi before stopping on South Street in Windale out of safety concerns. A PolAir helicopter then continued to search for the car which they found in Merewether, where police resumed to chase it by car.

Driving 90kmh in a 50kmh zone other cars took evasive action to avoid being hit by the Audi which later lost control and crashed into a gutter in Berner Street.

Jordan jumped out of the car and ran into the ocean and tried to swim away from police, but eventually swam back to shore where he was arrested.

Dundas was found by a member of the police dog squad in the backyard of a house on John Parade, Merewether.

Police found methamphetamine in a bag Jordan was carrying, a shortened rifle in the pocket of the driver's door of the Audi, and another 24 grams of methamphetamine, 9 grams of cocaine, alprazolam tablets and $962 in cash in a bag belonging to Kennedy.

Judge Sharron Norton said Kennedy's criminal history began at the age of 12, that he'd developed a pattern of "offence-related behaviours", and spent "lots of time" with the Alameddine gang.

Kennedy acknowledged that Mr Edwards' family would have been frightened by what happened, but said he could remember little of the night because of the drugs he'd taken.

Jordan similarly said he'd taken the drug ice that night and his "head was all over the shop" and he couldn't remember who he'd been with.

The jail terms were backdated to the date of their arrest. Kennedy was sentenced to jail for five and a half years, and will be eligible for release on parole on August 26, 2024; Jordan was jailed for three years and two months, with a non-parole period ending on March 31, 2023, and Dundas was sentenced to two years and ten months in jail, eligible for parole on February 7, 2023.

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