Al­though res­i­dents in the qui­et com­mu­ni­ty of Moo­nan Road, Waller­field, are ac­cus­tomed to hear­ing gun­shots from time to time, the steady vol­ley that rang out yes­ter­day morn­ing alert­ed them that some­thing was amiss.

Brav­ing in­ter­mit­tent rain­fall, sev­er­al per­sons emerged just af­ter 9 a.m. to find Ste­fon Joseph dead in his gold Nis­san Almera.

The car, which bore gun­shot holes to the front, had come to a stop af­ter re­vers­ing in­to a con­crete wall.

Joseph, 37, was de­scribed as a high­ly skilled straight­en­er and painter.

The fa­ther of one had re­port­ed­ly been liv­ing in the area for over ten years and was not known to be in trou­ble with the law or any­one else.

PCs Baksh and Salden­ha of the North­ern Di­vi­sion Emer­gency Re­sponse Pa­trol were the first of­fi­cers to ar­rive on the scene.