FROM RINK TO CLINK
Lawn bowls champ jailed for role in daylight shootout
GUN-TOTING lawn bowls player Travis Kelly has been jailed for five years over a shootout in Bell Park.
Kelly, 32, was at his Woodvale Court home when two shots were fired at the property from a passing Holden Commodore.
The one-time national bowls champion, above, responded by grabbing a pistol and running onto the street, before firing a single shot in the direction of the moving car.
A GUN-TOTING lawn bowls player has been jailed for his role in a daylight shootout on a Bell Park street.
Travis Kelly was sentenced to a maximum five-year jail term yesterday over charges stemming from March 7 this year.
The 32-year-old was at his Woodvale Court home about 9.50am when two shots were fired at the property from a passing Holden Commodore.
One of the bullets pierced a window and into a bedroom wall where Kelly was inside with his partner.
The one-time national lawn bowls champion responded by grabbing a loaded pistol and running onto the street, before firing a single shot in the direction of the moving car, which had two men inside.
He has maintained that his shot was a warning and that he aimed above the vehicle, however Judge Felicity Hampel told the County Court the bullet could have killed someone.
“To fire the pistol as you did … carried a significant risk that it would go into the car rather than above it, or would go somewhere else where members of the public — including children — may have been,” Judge Hampel said.
Kelly has been in custody since the day of the incident, when police from the Special Operations Group swarmed the suburban street.
He refused to tell police where he sourced the gun and declined to speculate who he thought had targeted him.
But Kelly made full admissions during a police interview, telling officers he had “f---ed up”.
“I didn’t think before I acted. It was a stupid thing to do,” he said.
Kelly pleaded guilty yesterday to reckless conduct endangering life and being a prohibited person in possession of a firearm.
The court heard the incident in Bell Park came after Kelly had already racked up a significant criminal record, including convictions for violence and drug trafficking. Defence barrister Len Hartnett said his client had been diagnosed with ADHD as a teenager and struggled with impulsivity.
But Judge Hampel said it was troubling that Kelly had purchased a gun several months before the incident.
“We’re not looking at impulsive offending,” she said.
“He says he has it for protection — that in itself is dangerous thinking.”
Kelly was supported in court by family as Mr Hartnett urged the judge to impose a community corrections order alongside a jail term of less than 12 months.
However, Judge Hampel said such serious offending warranted a longer sentence.
She imposed a minimum jail term of three years, noting her belief that Kelly had guarded prospects for rehabilitation.
Judge Hampel said the past decade of Kelly’s life had been littered with squandered opportunities.
A 24-year-old man from Manifold Heights has been charged in connection with the initial shooting at Kelly’s home and will next face court in January.