The father of a three-year-old girl who was shot dead in a Sydney home is behind bars, charged with possessing an illegal sawn-off shotgun and breaching a restraining order.
Chaotic scenes unfolded at Lalor Park, in the city's west, after 8pm on Sunday night when the toddler's mother ran from the house in hysterics.
"Not my baby girl, not my baby girl," the mother screamed as she raced from the house, levelling blame at the girl's father, neighbours recalled.
"I hate you."
It's unclear how the girl sustained the single fatal gunshot wound, but police are investigating whether she accidentally fired the weapon herself.
The girl's father, who emerged from the house covered in blood, was charged on Monday with possessing an unregistered sawn-off shotgun and not storing the weapon safely.
The 43-year-old Arncliffe man, who did not live at the house, was also charged with contravening domestic violence orders.
The mother and daughter and three other children, aged between three and eight, had been in the house at the time.
The father appeared before Blacktown Local Court on Monday, where he did not apply for bail and it was formally refused.
He is scheduled to appear before the same court on Friday.
Television footage from the scene showed a woman, thought to be the mother, screaming "I hate you... may you rot in hell", as she was taken away in an ambulance, while a man was sitting in the gutter with his head in his hands.
