OFF THE WIRE
JUST nine days shy of his 16th birthday, Hayden Burnes was brutally murdered at the first job he had held since completing the School Certificate weeks ago.
The Minchinbury industrial estate in western Sydney, where the apprentice mechanic was stabbed before dying in Nepean Hospital yesterday morning, was taped off as police - including local, homicide and gangs squad detectives, and the riot squad - interviewed witnesses and searched for clues.
A worker next door to the Marieanne Place workshop said a distraught man had approached him soon after 8am yesterday and, while gasping for breath, said: ''someone's been stabbed''. He then heard a man screaming. ''There was a lot of screaming going on after that,'' the worker, who did not wish to be identified, said. ''Maybe the young fellow might have been there by himself.'
The Herald has been told Hayden's father, for whom he worked at the automotive repairs business, had gone out briefly to get coffee for them both and returned to find his son dying.
While the boy's family reportedly has links to a bikie gang, police yesterday played down suggestions the attack was bikie-related.
''There is no intelligence to suggest [it is part of a bikie gang war] and I would suggest there is no stage for alarm at this time,'' the Mount Druitt local area commander, Superintendent Wayne Cox, said.
But a car was seen to pull up outside the industrial estate where the boy was working yesterday around the time of the attack. Someone was spotted getting out and then returning, before the car sped off.
Distraught friends gathered at the scene outside the police tape yesterday after learning of Hayden's death, some of them weeping in grief.
One friend, also 15, who said he had known Hayden since primary school, described the boy as ''just fun to have around''.
''[He liked] just having fun, riding bikes - anything with a motor he liked,'' the friend said.
Family members were admitted to the crime scene and spoke with detectives, who are examining CCTV footage of the area.
One worker said a bikie clubhouse had long operated opposite Marieanne Place on Grex Avenue.
''But we've never had any drama with them,'' he said.
http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/police-play-down-bikie-link-in-teenagers-stabbing-death-20111205-1ofhh.html#ixzz1fg93trJg