SA:Police hunt for clues after triple murder

AAP General News (Australia)
04-30-2011
SA:Police hunt for clues after triple murder

ADELAIDE, April 30 AAP - Police are still baffled why a man gunned down three neighbours
who had moved to Australia from South Africa for safety reasons.

Police spent Saturday scouring two homes in Adelaide for clues after a man turned on
his neighbours early on Friday, killing three and wounding a teenage boy and a police
officer who had come to their rescue.

Donato Anthony Corbo, a 39-year-old from Hectorville in the city's northeast, will
face court on Monday charged with three counts of murder and two of attempted murder after
the shooting spree and an eight-hour standoff with police.

Corbo allegedly murdered a man, 64, his wife, 65, their son-in-law, 41, and wounded
his 14-year-old son and a policeman. The family are believed to be from South Africa.

The couple's daughter and an 11-year-old boy who was staying at the house escaped uninjured.

Police have reportedly removed three guns from the home where Corbo lived with his parents.

Detective Inspector Denise Gray said detectives still did not know why the victims
were killed, with apparently no disputes between the neighbours.

"There doesn't appear to be any motive," Insp Gray told the Nine Network on Saturday.

It is understood the murdered couple were visiting Australia from South Africa and
were staying with their daughter's family.

Neighbour Stephen Whitehead said the South African family's daughter had moved to Australia
for a safer life.

"It's pretty ironic that they moved her for safety reasons, and how this has happened
to them, it's very sad," Mr Whitehead told the Nine Network.

They had just become settled and "kind of made a go here, and got established in jobs", he said.

A member of their church said they were a deeply religious family and "they were lovely
people, they wouldn't hurt anyone".

Police were alerted by a frantic call at 2.30am (CST) on Friday from the woman who
survived, saying shots were being fired into their front door on Montacute Road.

The gunman shot at officers after they arrived, striking one of them in the jaw, while
a second officer injured his knee.

The man fled next door to his own home and held police at bay for eight tense hours
before he gave himself up.

The wounded boy went to hospital in a stable condition while the officer who was shot
was deemed serious but stable and placed in an induced coma with surgery expected on his
jaw.

On Saturday, police continued to search the victims' home and the home of the gunman
to determine what led to the tragedy.

Insp Gray said the swimming pool at one of the homes had also been drained for possible evidence.

"There's obviously two houses that need to be processed basically inch by inch, so
there's a tremendous amount of work involved," she told the ABC.

The alleged gunman was refused bail.

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