A toddler was among those home when a suburban house was targeted in an early-morning shooting, as police probe potential links to an earlier incident.
Shots were fired at a house at Kellyville, in Sydney's northwest, at 3.10am on Tuesday.
Along with the three-year-old, a man and woman, both aged 36, were inside the home. The trio escaped injury.
Authorities believe there was a confrontation with the shooters at the front door after the occupants were woken by noise outside the property.
Multiple shots were then fired, with police reporting damage to windows.
Tensions are high among the community, with police examining potential links between the incident and a recent similar shooting.
Shots were aimed at a home on June 25 in North Kellyville - less than a 10-minute drive away - where two men and a woman were also uninjured.
"It's too early for me to say what those links are," Detective Superintendent Naomi Moore said on Tuesday.
"But one would argue, from proximity and the actions of the offenders, that there could potentially be a link - and that will be a line of inquiry."
Authorities are treating a nearby car fire on Tuesday as suspicious, believing it may be linked to the shooting.
Organised crime detectives are involved in the investigation, police said.
But it is too early to say whether the shooting was gang-related.
CCTV footage shows the alleged offenders running through a reserve after disposing of the car.
Police are searching for a second vehicle in which they left the area.
Det Supt Moore said the community should feel protected by the police response.
The incident was being treated as targeted, rather than a random attack.
"For the neighbours it's a really challenging time," she said.
"(The shooters) have no regard for the community. They have no regard for the occupants of that house and more broadly the street and the suburb.
"They have no regard for themselves, because the police will now put everything they have into this investigation."
