Baby shot, mother dies in car crash

Neighbours ran to the house in Gracemere after hearing shots. Photo / Courier Mail

In a tragic sequel to a brief, failed marriage, an 8-month-old baby has been shot dead, his father gravely wounded in the stomach, and his mother killed in a road accident.

The carnage has shocked the central Queensland community of Gracemere, a thriving semi-rural dormitory town about 9km west of Rockhampton, where the mother lived in a house in Zamia Way.

Accounts by police and neighbours paint a horrifying picture of gunshots in the dark of Tuesday evening, a man clutching his stomach as he staggered to a neighbour's home for help, and a ute racing off into the night.

Inside the house, the baby lay dead on a tiled floor.

Police Regional Crime Co-ordinator Detective Inspector Jon Wacker told reporters yesterday that the injured man was the baby's father, 36, and the woman, 22, killed when her car rammed into a tree in Rockhampton, his mother.

The couple had divorced last year after only a few months of marriage.

About 8pm on Tuesday neighbours ran to the house after gunshots rang out and the father emerged clutching his stomach, looking for help.

One neighbour found the baby bleeding on the floor. The infant was dead on arrival at Rockhampton Base Hospital.

In the driveway, neighbour Tex Bennett saw a ute back out and drive off. "Then people started screaming that they went into the house, and [a man] came out with the baby and they were just screaming that the baby's been hurt," he told ABC radio.

His wife Jodiee told AAP she had heard only one gunshot, although others had heard more.

"A man went in there and found the little fella on the floor," she said.

"There was screaming and everything, because someone had found the baby hurt.

"They were calling out to get an ambulance.

"They thought he had hit his head on the tiles, but apparently that was one of the gunshot wounds that the baby copped in the head."

Shortly afterwards, police found the wreckage of the ute smashed against a tree in Upper Dawson Rd, Rockhampton, about 10km away. The mother was dead inside.

Wacker said a small handgun had been found at the scene of the accident, but tests would be needed to find if it was the weapon used in the shootings.

He said the father was expected to make a full recovery and had been able to talk to police after surgery.

Local real estate agent Dot Fechner knew the couple as clients.

"I did know the male," she told the ABC.

"He is a very loving, concerning, genuine person.

"The family next door would have been asking themselves the question 'what could they have done to have prevented it', like any of us would have been doing.

"It's just so close to home for a neighbourhood for this sort of thing to happen." Rockhampton Mayor Brad Carter said the tragedy would hit the community hard.

"We are a very close community up here. That's the way we function.

"This incident will have a significant impact on the community, especially as we care so much for children and young people. To see a young couple involved in something like this is an absolute tragedy."