Police in Australia are hunting for a man who shot a cyclist at the weekend in what was apparently a random attack. The victim’s family suspect he may have been about to cycle past something his attacker “didn’t want him to see.”
Retired schoolteacher Kelvin Tennant, 72, was due to undergo surgery earlier today for multiple bullet wounds in the incident on Saturday lunchtime.
According to skynews.com.au, he has pellets lodged in his chest as well as in his face close as a result of the shooting.
He had been riding on the Myrtleford-Everton Rail Trail in Everton, north east Victoria, reports skynews.com.au.
Police believe the weapon used was small calibre but cannot provide any details beyond that at the moment.
Detective Senior Constable Elise Douglas explained “We’ll have to have a better look at the injuries and hopefully get some ballistics evidence to help us out.”
Officers described Mr Tennant as a “grandfather who enjoys cycling,” and that the attack seemed to be motiveless.
They are appealing for information, including from cyclists who have been using the trail at the time.
His son, speaking outside the Alfred Hospital where his father is being treated, said: “Dad just observed a dark coloured car in an unusual place and before he knew it, a person jumped out and fired shots at him.
“The person was behind a bush and they walked towards him.”
Mr Tennant’s daughter, Natalie Knox, said her father “feels blessed and lucky and happy to be here. It was very close.”
11 thoughts on “Cyclist in Australia shot in what police say is random attack”
The lure of Australia as a
The lure of Australia as a cycling utopia continues to grow.
Yorkshire wallet wrote:
Have you actually been to Australia and ridden the roads or trails here? If not, reaching conclusions purely from articles on the net may be a bit like me assessing the atmosphere in London solely from the Daily Mail, which I don’t since I’ve been to the UK several times.
hdb wrote:
But the thing is, aside from individual incidents like this (or crazed bird attacks) some of those articles make factual claims that are either true or not. Are you saying they are false?
For example, does Australia have compulsory helmet laws or not? If it does, then just that alone means it’s not somewhere I’m keen to cycle.
FluffyKittenofTindalos wrote:
Have you actually been to Australia and ridden the roads or trails here? If not, reaching conclusions purely from articles on the net may be a bit like me assessing the atmosphere in London solely from the Daily Mail, which I don’t since I’ve been to the UK several times.
— hdb But the thing is, aside from individual incidents like this (or crazed bird attacks) some of those articles make factual claims that are either true or not. Are you saying they are false? For example, does Australia have compulsory helmet laws or not? If it does, then just that alone means it’s not somewhere I’m keen to cycle.— Yorkshire wallet
Yes – there are compulsory helmet laws here and in New Zealand (where I have also lived) and there aren’t in Colorado (where I lived for 15 years). Since I race and wear a helmet every time I get on a bike in any case, the existence or absence of laws regarding them hasn’t had any impact on me. Writing off an entire continent because of a set of regulations (silly or not, I’ll not take a position) seems like throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
I just get a bit tired of people presenting Australia as the worst place on the planet to ride a bike when, in reality, it is pretty amazing. The cycling culture and opportunities here in Melbourne, Victoria are the best I have ever experienced and that includes Boulder, Colorado and the South Island of New Zealand, both of which are considered “cycling meccas.”
hdb wrote:
you do know that just making people cover their heads is a pretty poor reason for a comparison to mecca, right mate?
hdb wrote:
Sounds like Australia is the perfect place for you.
hdb wrote:
No, it’s a very simple decision.
My tourist money goes to countries where people are free to do what they want, so long as they do no harm to others (I will count “an unacceptable risk of harm”, “reasonable fear of harm” and “loss of property” as well)
That is all.
You do not live in such a country. That is not your fault, but keeping it that way is, and in doing so you lose moral authority to whine about any other freedoms you may lose.
(no, I would not patronise my own country as a tourist either. Same reason.)
Wow – some people have
Wow – some people have distilled the question of good cycling/bad cycling down to one criteria – do I have to wear a helmet.
Based on the incessant whinging on here about British drivers, taxis, Councils, pedestrians, Members of Parliament and the myriad other joys of life there, I would have thought there might be a bit of perspective about pros and cons but clearly I was wrong.
At least I can be confident that none of you will be clogging up where I ride here. Enjoy the rain and moaning of your fellow countrymen.
hdb wrote:
Yeah it’s a deal-breaker. It’s like a marker of subservience, and an indignity. Attempts at fining people for not having bells and making carrying ID compulsory don’t help either, though I assume that particular proposal was never going to happen in practice, it doesn’t suggest a welcoming atmosphere.
Stories like this one, or other assorted incidents of angry Australians abusing cyclists are just fluff stories and lone incidents that don’t in truth mean anything at all (any more than the deranged bird attacks or the spiders)… except they are in the context of more systematic things like the helmet laws and apparently constant attempts by politicians over there to impose new laws on cyclists. And of course the modal share there is even lower than here, which says something.
Thing is, while the UK absolutely has its own crap, there’s a difference between facing one’s own domestic problems, where you, as a native, have some standing to fight back and object, and going somewhere as an outsider and foreigner and putting yourself in a subservient position where you are just obliged to suck it up. I wouldn’t expect a Dutch cyclist to be overjoyed at coming to the UK, for the same reason.
Enjoy your lack of rain and consequent water shortages, as the climate-change that so many Australians deny, kicks in!
Edit – and I’d re-emphasise that modal share. That’s not ‘biased reporting’ its an objective fact.
If Australia is as great for cycling as you say, then why do so few Australians do it?
whinging poms and aussie
whinging poms and aussie bogans – I think we’ve ticked the stereotypes box on this thread – next!
It is time that the right
It is time that the right wing media learned that its actions have consequences.