Criminal started shooting at target area (6)
I believe the answer is:
sinner
'criminal' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'started shooting at target area' is the wordplay.
'started' indicates taking the first letters.
'at' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'target area' becomes 'inner' (I've seen this before).
The first letter of 'shooting' is 's'.
's'+'inner'='SINNER'
(Other definitions for sinner that I've seen before include "Offender against moral law" , "One who breaks moral law" , "Person straying" , "Transgressor of the moral law" , "Serious offender" .)