Boy dies after being shot inside Sydney apartment

An 11-year-old boy accidentally shot in the face inside a Sydney apartment has died in hospital.

Detectives are working to establish the circumstances surrounding how the boy was shot at the Moda complex in Norwest on Monday afternoon.

Investigators believe the boy, who cannot be legally identified, may have accidentally shot himself while handling an illegal gun inside the apartment, but they have not ruled out the possibility that someone else in the apartment accidentally fired the gun. He is not believed to have been intentionally shot.

The boy’s mother and several 18-year-old men were inside the apartment at the time but were not injured.

Paramedics treated the boy, who suffered wounds to his face and neck, before rushing him to The Children’s Hospital at Westmead in a critical condition. His family on Thursday night switched off his life support, police said.

The boy’s father, a convicted cocaine dealer, paid tribute to his son in a social media post on Thursday afternoon.

“Rip my baby,” he wrote alongside a photo of the pair. Other members of the boy’s extended family are linked to organised crime and known to police.

None of the occupants inside the apartment have cooperated with investigators, who as a result have been unable to establish how the boy was shot. The boy’s family has cooperated with police.

Homicide squad commander Detective Superintendent Joe Doueihi on Thursday said that investigators had spoken to all but one of the people inside the apartment at the time of the shooting.

Police are yet to locate the gun involved in the shooting, and believe one of the men inside the apartment fled with the weapon before emergency services arrived.

Police said no firearms were registered to the apartment. The circumstances of how the gun came to be in the home are under investigation. Police do not believe the shooting is linked to ongoing conflicts between Sydney organised crime networks.

“It’s evident that one of the occupants or one of the persons present at the unit has taken the firearm away shortly after the shooting and got rid of the evidence,” Doueihi said.

An 18-year-old man, Isaac Bechara, remains in custody charged with concealing a serious indictable offence. Bechara was arrested at the apartment alongside two other 18-year-old men, who were released without charge. He did not apply for bail when he appeared in Bankstown Local Court on Tuesday.

No arrests have been made over the 11-year-old’s death.

Start the day with a summary of the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.