GUNMAN MURDER BID ON PRISON OFFICER’S DOORSTEP
Hitman targets guard as he heads to work
A HITMAN lay in wait for a prison officer to head to work before firing a shotgun at him and escaping in a waiting car.
Gary Chambers, 38, was targeted at his home in Bearsden, Glasgow, at 5.30am yesterday.
The shot, which just missed him, shattered a window of his house.
A PRISON officer was shot at in a murder bid as he left his home to go to work early in the morning.
Gary Chambers, 38, was targeted by a hitman on the driveway of his home in a posh suburb near Glasgow.
The shot narrowly missed the stepdad of three but left a smashed window next to the door of his semi-detached home in Bearsden.
It is thought three teenagers and Gary’s wife, Debbie, also 38, were in the house at the time of the targeted hit.
The gunman fired a shotgun blast at his target and then ran to a waiting car – driven by another man – which sped away.
The attack happened at about 5.30am yesterday. Police cordoned off much of the street in the affluent neighbourhood.
Forensic teams wearing white overalls conducted a search in the driveway of the property where a white BMW was parked.
One resident said: “Welcome to leafy Bearsden. This is horrendous and could have been much worse.
“I was up at six o’clock this morning and the first thing I saw was all of the police.
“It seems someone fired a shot half an hour before I got up. I slept right through it.” Another resident said: “My next-door neighbour said he heard the shot go off.
“He came into my garden still in his pyjamas asking if I knew what was going on. I had to tell him I hadn’t even heard the shot.
“Another neighbour told me he had heard the shot and it was unmistakably a shotgun blast.
“It is not the kind of thing you want to hear in a street like this were there are a lot of children.”
An elderly resident said: “I’ve lived here 40-odd years and I have never seen police in the street, never mind on this scale.
“It is a quiet neighbourhood with good families and this is the last thing you would think would
happen here.” Another neighbour said: “It is horrific that this man was the intended victim as he left for work.
“The attackers must have been lying in wait and that is terrifying. There are teenagers in that house. It is appalling.”
Last night, detectives were scouring CCTV images of the area, conducting door-to-door inquiries and appealing for the public to come forward.
They say the car involved is thought to have been a silver or grey Skoda, possibly a Fabia.
Detective Inspector Stuart Dougan, of the Major Investigation Team, said: “Thankfully no one has been injured as a result of this shooting but there could have had a very different outcome.
“We believe, from our investigation so far, that the man was the intended target of the shooter.
“However, it doesn’t matter whether intended or not – to use a firearm so recklessly is incredibly dangerous.
“We will be treating this as attempted murder.
“We know that the Skoda was parked in Rannoch Drive prior to the attack and officers are in the area at the moment looking at CCTV, both private and public, as well as carrying out door-to-door inquiries. Residents in the street would have either been in their beds or just waking up when this took place.
“We would appeal for anyone who may have seen or heard anything, and has not already spoken to police, to get in touch.”
Gary works at Addiewell Prison, near Livingston, and is employed by private firm Sodexo Justice Services.
He married Debbie in
February 2017. It is thought Debbie’s children from her previous marriage, a daughter aged 18, and boys aged 17 and 14, were in the house at the time of the attack. The attempted hit took place near Killermont Primary School and Nursery.
High-security Addiewell is said to be at the centre of a power struggle involving notorious gangster Robert “Birdman” O’Hara.
It is reported he has been in segregation over claims he threatened another inmate.
He was jailed for life in 2005 over the murder of rival Paul McDowall. The 25-year-old was attacked in Glasgow’s Possilpark by two men, one of whom was in phone contact with O’Hara.
The mobster was also found guilty of firearms offences and trafficking heroin.
Sodexo Justice Services was asked to comment last night.
A spokeswoman for HMP Addiewell said: “We can confirm that there was an incident involving one of our employees this morning which is now under police investigation and so we are unable to comment further at present.
“We will support our employee and his family in any way we can.”
I’ve lived here 40 years and never seen police ELDERLY NEIGHBOUR OF GARY’S FAMILY