Before shooting a couple outside his house, Brendyn Wade Clark manually worked the bolt of the sawn-off rifle.
He started firing from his front verandah as Adrian Steven William Hing and Clarice Laura Warren approached his home on a suburban street in Brisbane’s south after 7am in June 2019.
Clark kept shooting – working the 0.22 calibre rifle’s bolt each time – as he went down the stairs, through his yard and over a fence while the couple retreated to a bus shelter.
Ms Warren was the first to be hit by a bullet, suffering a foot wound.
Mr Hing was shot five times.
As Mr Hing was “hunted like an animal”, Ms Warren took off a shoe and tried to strike the advancing Clark.
He pushed her to the ground and shot her in the leg from close range.
Clark then turned to Mr Hing and, after again working the bolt, pulled the trigger – but it did not discharge.
The reason why the rifle – later found in Clark’s murky fish tank – did not fire at the time is still unknown.
Clark left “like a coward” after Mr Hing’s pit bull Archer attacked, clubbing the dog with his weapon before departing.
“You fired seven to eight shots in total, each time you needed to manipulate the bolt to chamber another round,” Justice Lincoln Crowley said in Brisbane Supreme Court.
“I consider your actions were callous and deliberate, all done with the intention to kill or cause grievous bodily harm to Mr Hing.
“You only ceased your attack … when the gun did not fire and Mr Hing’s dog then attacked you.”
Clark fled the scene with an associate before surrendering himself to police a month later.
The shooting occurred after “brewing animosity” around Mr Hing’s new relationship with Ms Warren.
Tensions escalated after Mr Hing’s $6000 mountain bike’s carbon fibre frame was cut in half and then Clark’s CCTV cameras at his home were damaged.
Mr Hing went to Clark’s Sunnybank Hills home in the early morning with Ms Warren and his dog to find out who “cut my bike”, a jury was told.
Justice Crowley said text messages showed there had been a degree of planning and premeditation by Clark who had armed himself with a weapon in advance.
“You were effectively lying in wait. If Mr Hing dare come, you would be ready,” he said.
Mr Hing underwent surgery for life threatening injuries from the “extremely terrifying and traumatising” attack and had a finger amputated.
Both Mr Hing and Ms Warren have since made a “remarkable recovery”.
Clark was a daily methamphetamine user and had little sleep in the three days before the shooting.
Clark, 42, was found guilty of attempted murder by a jury in April.
He had earlier pleaded guilty to malicious act with intent.
Clark on Friday was sentenced to 15 years in jail.
A serious violent offence order was declared, ensuring Clark must serve 80 per cent of his sentence before he is eligible for parole.