4 charged in Aboriginal shooting incident

A man and two teenagers were due to face court on Sunday after a stolen car mounted a crowded footpath in central Sydney, leading to two Aboriginal youngsters being shot by police. The incident in the city's red-light district early Saturday morning stoked fears of racial tensions but there were no reports of trouble overnight in the impoverished Aboriginal suburb of Redfern, where the youths came from. After the car hit a bystander police opened fire, hitting the 14-year-old driver in the chest and arm while his passenger, 18, took a bullet to the neck. Four others in the back seat, a man aged 24 and three youths aged 13, 14 and 16 were charged late Saturday with being carried in a conveyance, or joy riding. Three were to appear in court Sunday and the youngest at a later date. The two with gunshot wounds remain in a serious condition, police said as they continued working to defuse tensions with Redfern's Aboriginal elders amid fears of a repeat of 2004 riots following the death of TJ Hickey. The 17-year-old Hickey was impaled on a fence as -- according to his family -- officers chased him on his bicycle. Scores of police were injured in a wild nine-hour standoff but an inquiry ultimately cleared them. Aborigines are Australia's most disadvantaged minority, with a shorter life expectancy and much higher rates of imprisonment and disease than the broader population.