{"id":897248,"date":"2026-09-19T02:46:14","date_gmt":"2026-09-19T02:46:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/897248\/"},"modified":"2026-09-19T02:46:14","modified_gmt":"2026-09-19T02:46:14","slug":"woman-accused-of-helping-gunman-escape-after-innocent-man-joshua-mcdonald-killed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/897248\/","title":{"rendered":"Woman accused of helping gunman escape after innocent man Joshua McDonald killed"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Police allege a woman kept watch for a gunman and helped him escape after <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nine.com.au\/topic\/nsw-police-jdi\" class=\"sc-iRgEWu hHENWX\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">innocent Sydney man<\/a> Joshua McDonald was shot dead in broad daylight.<\/p>\n<p>McDonald, 40, was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nine.com.au\/topic\/shootings-26mn\" class=\"sc-iRgEWu hHENWX\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">gunned down<\/a> in the driveway of a Merrylands West home on September 2 in a suspected case of mistaken identity.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/829f98350f185958f7af077de0edd3401fdc28929c831238619ae523d97ded06.png\"  width=\"100%\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"_0b53bae146db0b62 _7475dd3391ee1518\" style=\"--text-color:var(--color-text-secondary)\">A 28-year-old woman allegedly kept watch as Sydney man Joshua McDonald was gunned down.\u00a0Supplied<\/p>\n<p>Now, more than two weeks after his death, a 28-year-old woman has been charged over her alleged role in the killing.<\/p>\n<p>Detectives arrested the woman at a Wollongong unit on Friday afternoon, with police alleging she kept watch for the gunman and helped with their escape.<\/p>\n<p>McDonald was at the Bruce Street property about 3.15pm when he was shot.<\/p>\n<p>Neighbours reported hearing up to eight gunshots fired in quick succession before a car drove away, leaving McDonald critically wounded in the driveway.<\/p>\n<p>Paramedics treated him at the scene, but he could not be saved.<\/p>\n<p>Police have said McDonald had no links to organised crime.<\/p>\n<p>The 28-year-old woman was taken to Wollongong Police Station and charged with being an accessory after the fact to murder, participating in a criminal group and failing to comply with a digital evidence access order.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"A heavy police presence remains on the Merrylands West street.\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/6b9db4f622ff1d879330e72222fcfa3ac1e91f0aae530997ad8bd80dad90dabd.jpeg\"  width=\"100%\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"_0b53bae146db0b62 _7475dd3391ee1518\" style=\"--text-color:var(--color-text-secondary)\">McDonald, 40, was shot in the driveway of a Merrylands West home on September 2.\u00a09News<\/p>\n<p>She was refused bail and is due to face Bail Division Local Court 3 today.<\/p>\n<p>An 18-year-old man has also been charged over McDonald\u2019s death and remains before the courts.<\/p>\n<p>McDonald was one of two innocent men killed in suspected cases of mistaken identity in Sydney earlier this month.<\/p>\n<p>Marco Tapia, 23, was also shot dead within 48 hours of McDonald\u2019s killing.<\/p>\n<p>Investigations into both deaths are continuing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Police allege a woman kept watch for a gunman and helped him escape after innocent Sydney man Joshua&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":897249,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-897248","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/897248","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=897248"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/897248\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/897249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=897248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=897248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=897248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}