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Walsh Street police shootings

UNSOLVED1988Walsh Street, South Yarra, Melbourne3 SOURCESUPDATED JUL 2026
Illustrative

In the early hours of 12 October 1988, Victoria Police constables Steven Tynan, 22, and Damian Eyre, 20, were dispatched from Prahran police station to investigate a reported abandoned Holden Commodore on Walsh Street, South Yarra, Melbourne. At about 4:50 am, while examining the vehicle, the two officers were ambushed by armed offenders. One gunman shot Tynan with a shotgun while he was seated in the police van; Eyre, though seriously wounded, is believed to have struggled with his attacker(s) before someone removed his own service revolver from its holster and shot him in the head with it. Both officers died at the scene, which was discovered shortly afterward by responding units from South Melbourne, St Kilda and Russell Street.

The killings occurred roughly thirteen hours after Victor Peirce's close associate, Graeme Jensen, was fatally shot by police in Narre Warren during an attempted arrest connected to an armed robbery and murder investigation. Police and commentators viewed the Walsh Street killings as retaliation by members of Melbourne's armed-robbery underworld following a period of a high number of fatal police shootings of suspects.

The investigation, known as the Ty-Eyre Task Force and led by Detective Inspector John Noonan, became the largest and longest-running inquiry Victoria Police had undertaken to that point, running for approximately two-and-a-half years. Investigators linked the shotgun used in the killings, recovered months later half-buried in a golf-course garden bed, to an earlier bungled bank robbery in Oak Park attributed to a group police dubbed the "Flemington Crew."

Four men — Victor Peirce, Trevor Pettingill, Anthony Leigh Farrell and Peter David McEvoy — were charged with the murders. Two other men police believed were involved, Jedd Houghton and Gary Abdallah, were shot and killed by Victoria Police before they could be brought to trial; a detective charged over Abdallah's death was acquitted. Jason Ryan, a prosecution witness granted immunity, gave evidence that changed several times before trial. Victor Peirce's wife, Wendy Peirce, initially provided her husband an alibi, then agreed to testify against him as a hostile prosecution witness, but ultimately did not testify; she was later convicted of perjury and served a nine-month non-parole sentence.

At trial in the Supreme Court of Victoria, all four accused men were acquitted on 26 March 1991. In 2005, Wendy Peirce gave a media interview stating that her late husband (who was fatally shot in an unrelated 2002 incident) had planned and carried out the murders. A 2011 book concluded that two of the acquitted defendants, Farrell and Pettingill, played no part in the killings. In 2010, comments attributed to McEvoy prompted calls for a coronial inquest into the deaths of the two constables. The case remains formally unsolved following the acquittals.

Key facts

Victims
Steven Tynan, Graeme Jensen, Damian Eyre
Date
1988
Location
Walsh Street, South Yarra, Melbourne
Case status
unsolved

Case timeline

  1. 1984-11-22

    1984 Beaumaris shootings: two police officers wounded by an armed offender, cited as a prior attack on Victoria Police.

  2. 1985-06-19

    Pavel Marinof shoots and wounds two officers in Cheltenham, beginning a manhunt.

  3. 1986-02-25

    Marinof is fatally shot by police after wounding two more officers near Wallan.

  4. 1986-03-27

    Car bomb explodes outside Russell Street Police Headquarters; Constable Angela Taylor later dies of injuries.

  5. 1986-09-27

    Senior Constable Maurice Moore is shot and killed in Maryborough.

  6. 1987-01-25

    Mark Militano is shot and killed by Victoria Police.

  7. 1987-06

    Frank Valastro is shot and killed by Victoria Police.

  8. 1988-10-11

    Graeme Jensen, an associate of Victor Peirce, is fatally shot by police in Narre Warren.

  9. 1988-10-12

    Constables Steven Tynan and Damian Eyre are ambushed and killed on Walsh Street, South Yarra.

  10. 1988-10-21

    The Ty-Eyre Task Force is set up to investigate the killings.

  11. 1988-10-24

    Jason Ryan is moved to Mansfield and placed under witness protection.

  12. 1988-11-17

    Jedd Houghton is shot and killed by police at a Bendigo caravan park.

  13. 1989-04-09

    Gary Abdallah is shot and killed by Victoria Police after allegedly producing an imitation pistol.

  14. 1991-03

    Trial of Victor Peirce, Trevor Pettingill, Anthony Leigh Farrell and Peter David McEvoy begins.

  15. 1991-03-26

    All four accused men are found not guilty in the Supreme Court of Victoria.

  16. 2002-05-01

    Victor Peirce is shot and killed in a drive-by shooting in Port Melbourne, in an incident linked to Andrew Veniamin.

  17. 2005-10

    Wendy Peirce gives a media interview stating her late husband planned and carried out the murders.

  18. 2010-02

    Peter McEvoy reportedly tells New South Wales Police he heard the final words of a dying constable, prompting calls for a coronial inquest.

  19. 2011-03-13

    Sunday Night airs a former police officer's claim regarding the circumstances of Graeme Jensen's death.

  20. 2011-10

    The book A Pack of Bloody Animals is published, concluding two defendants played no part in the murders.

Best coverage

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People

  • Anthony Leigh Farrell

    ACQUITTED

    Charged with the murders of Tynan and Eyre; acquitted by a jury in the Supreme Court of Victoria in 1991.

  • Jedd Houghton

    CHARGED

    Named by prosecution evidence as an alleged participant in planning the killings; shot and killed by Victoria Police in November 1988 before being brought to trial.

  • Steven Tynan

    VICTIM

    Victoria Police constable, aged 22, killed in the Walsh Street ambush on 12 October 1988.

  • Trevor Pettingill

    ACQUITTED

    Charged with the murders of Tynan and Eyre; acquitted by a jury in the Supreme Court of Victoria in 1991.

  • Peter David McEvoy

    ACQUITTED

    Charged with the murders of Tynan and Eyre; acquitted by a jury in the Supreme Court of Victoria in 1991.

  • Victor Peirce

    ACQUITTED

    Charged with the murders of Tynan and Eyre; acquitted by a jury in the Supreme Court of Victoria in 1991.

  • Cliff Lockwood

    ACQUITTED

    Detective charged with the murder of Gary Abdallah; acquitted.

  • John Noonan

    LAW ENFORCEMENT

    Detective Inspector who led the Ty-Eyre Task Force investigating the killings.

  • Gary Abdallah

    CHARGED

    Implicated by witness evidence in connection with the killings; shot and killed by Victoria Police in April 1989 before being brought to trial.

  • Graeme Jensen

    VICTIM

    Associate of Victor Peirce, fatally shot by Victoria Police in Narre Warren on 11 October 1988, an event linked to the following day's Walsh Street killings.

  • Wendy Peirce

    CONVICTED

    Wife of Victor Peirce; convicted of perjury in connection with the case and sentenced to nine months non-parole.

  • Damian Eyre

    VICTIM

    Victoria Police constable, aged 20, killed in the Walsh Street ambush on 12 October 1988.

Roles reflect public records and court outcomes at the time of writing — supporting citations are on file under Sources.

Places

Walsh Street, South Yarra, Melbourne

-37.8329, 144.9860

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Common questions

What happened to the victim?
Two young Victoria Police constables, Steven Tynan and Damian Eyre, were ambushed and killed while investigating an abandoned car on Walsh Street, South Yarra, in the early hours of 12 October 1988. Four men charged with their murders were later acquitted; the case remains formally unresolved.
Where did the shootings happen?
Walsh Street, South Yarra, Melbourne.
Who was convicted?
Wendy Peirce (Wife of Victor Peirce; convicted of perjury in connection with the case and sentenced to nine months non-parole.).
What is the current status of the case?
Status: unsolved.
More cases in Australia

Sources

  1. ENCYCLOPEDICWalsh Street police shootingsWikipedia · 2026-07-07
  2. PRESSRevisiting the Walsh Street murdersThe Age · 2026-07-07
  3. OFFICIAL / AGENCYVictoria Police official websitepolice.vic.gov.au · 2026-07-07

Record history

First published
JUL 10, 2026