Australian police appeal for calm after teen shootings

SYDNEY, April 23, 2012 (AFP) - Australian police Monday renewed calls for calm after two Aboriginal teenagers were shot in Sydney's red-light district, saying footage of the incident was shocking but had to be judged in context.

Graphic mobile phone footage appeared to show a police officer viciously punching one of the teenagers after he had been shot. The youth, heavily bleeding, is then pinned face down on the ground.

“We need to judge this matter very much in context.” The video was taken as the suspects were arrested after the stolen car they were in mounted the pavement in Kings Cross early Saturday, hitting one woman and dragging her beneath the vehicle, prompting the police to fire.

Of the six indigenous youths in the car, two were hit by bullets --the File illustration photo shows a police car in Sydney (AFP/FILE) 14-year-old driver in the chest and arm and his 18year-old passenger in the neck.

The footage shows at least one of those taken from the car and rushed away on a stretcher but it also shows another being dragged along the ground, repeatedly punched and handcuffed as he bleeds.

The punched boy's father told Australian media he was shocked.

“My son is no angel... but I just can't believe the brutality factor of what happened to him...” Peter Taylor told the Seven Network.

The footage shows at least one of those taken from the car and rushed away on a stretcher but it also shows another being dragged along the ground, repeatedly punched and handcuffed as he bleeds.