ADVERTISEMENT
The sun-drenched, quiet afternoon in Lake Cargelligo, a tight-knit community nestled in the Central West region of New South Wales, was violently shattered on January 23, 2026, by a series of events that have left the town reeling in collective shock and mourning. What began as a typical Friday in the rural enclave quickly descended into a scene of unprecedented chaos and tragedy as a fatal shooting spree claimed the lives of three individuals and left another fighting for recovery. The scale of the violence has prompted one of the most significant emergency responses in the region’s recent history, as local police, tactical units, and aerial support descended upon the town to secure the area and track a suspect who remains at large and is considered highly dangerous.
The emergency began with a frantic call to triple zero, leading first responders to Bokhara Street. Upon arrival, officers discovered a grim scene that would set the tone for the hours to follow: a man and a woman were found deceased inside a vehicle. Before the gravity of the first discovery could even be processed, reports of further gunfire erupted from nearby Walker Street. Racing to the second location, police found another woman who had succumbed to gunshot wounds, while a man lay nearby suffering from serious injuries. The survivor was stabilized by paramedics on-site before being rushed to a major hospital, where he remains in a serious but stable condition. The rapid succession of these attacks suggested a calculated and high-speed trajectory of violence, forcing authorities to immediately lock down the township.
ADVERTISEMENT
