POLICE have charged a man after a woman was shot dead in a residential West Footscray street on Monday.
Phillip Paul Bracken, 45, of West Footscray, was charged with murder over the slaying of 58-year-old Helen Curtis in Clive Street just after 2.30pm.
Bracken faced an out-of-sessions court hearing at the Footscray police station on Tuesday morning and was remanded in custody to appear in the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court later yesterday.
Witnesses reported that the man and woman arrived in separate cars and that an argument broke out in the street before the shooting.
The woman, allegedly shot by her de facto partner, is believed to have had the semi-automatic assault rifle in her car.
A number of gunfire shots were heard by nearby residents and the incident was captured on a CCTV camera installed at a nearby house.
Bracken was taken into custody at the scene.
Senior Sergeant Stephen McIntyre of the homicide squad said police were called to the site just after 2.30pm.
“At some stage a firearm has been produced and a female has received a number of fatal gunshots,” he said.
Bracken has been remanded in custody for a committal mention in March.
— with The Age
