A local band’s music video shoot was disrupted by the NSW Police Riot Squad after neighbours called the cops in a terrified state to report a masked man brandishing a rifle stalking the streets of Marrickville on Friday afternoon.

As the Sydney Morning Herald reports, the band was filming on Faversham Street in industrial Marrickville, just near the headquarters of Australian hip-hop label Elefant Traks and the Red Rattler theatre.

Caitlin McGregor, a publicist for Elefant Traks, was one of the locals who noticed the man clad in a ski mask, who it turned out was holding an air rifle and being followed by a camera crew. Speaking to Fairfax, she called it the most terrifying moment of her life.

“My instant thought was, ‘He’s heading somewhere to kill people,'” she said. “Especially with the Orlando shooting happening, something that I was extremely traumatised by, it was really scary.”

“I texted some work friends to find out where they were, they had all gone out to lunch and I was the only one there. They told me to hide in the office, lock all the doors and call the cops.”

Among those McGregor texted was Urthboy, emcee and co-founder of the Sydney label, who took to Twitter to report on the situation. “Just recd sms from female work colleague saying there’s a guy in our car park w a rifle in a ski-mask!” he wrote.

Public Order and Riot Squad officers eventually got to the scene and took the band and film crew to Newtown police station. It was discovered that the air rifle used in the clip was not authorised.

Two men, aged 41 and 38, were charged with possessing an unregistered firearm in a public place without authorisation. They were granted conditional bail and are due to appear at Newtown Local Court next month.

McGregor told Fairfax that an hour after seeing the man she went into shock and broke down in tears. “I don’t ever want to feel like that again,” she said. “The least they could have done was just tell people in the area they were going to shoot a video clip.”

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