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Man charged with murder over Melbourne CBD collision
Homicide detectives have charged a 26-year-old man with murder after he allegedly drove his car into pedestrians and vehicles in Melbourne’s CBD.
Police said on Saturday night the Melton West man had been charged with one count of murder, three counts of attempted murder, three counts of intentionally causing serious injury and two counts of conduct endangering life.
The man appeared at an after-hours court hearing where he was remanded in custody to reappear at Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on January 15, 2024.
The charges follow an incident in which emergency services were called to a report of a man driving a white Toyota Aurion that allegedly collided with three pedestrians, a Mazda CX-5 and a Hyundai in Bourke Street and Russell Street about 6.20pm on Friday.
The driver of the Hyundai, a 76-year-old man from Brunswick, died at the scene.
The three pedestrians, the driver and passenger of the Mazda CX-9 all aged in their 20s and 30s, were taken to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
Police do not believe this was a terror-related incident.
In the aftermath, Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews said on Saturday that there was no further feasible safety measures that could have prevented the fatal incident.
For more on that story, read the full report by the Guardian’s Australia’s Natasha May:
Noel Pearson will be speaking to ABC Insiders about the Indigenous Voice to Parliament.
We will bring you the latest as it happens.
Good morning
And welcome to another Sunday morning Guardian live blog.
Prime minister Anthony Albanese has praised a joint statement from the G20 denouncing the invasion of Ukraine as the “strongest messaging yet” from the world’s richest economies. There had been concern before the summit that consensus might not be reached owing to Russia’s presence at the meeting, but the final statement said all states “must refrain from all threats” and that “today’s era must not be war”.
Meanwhile the PM says he wants trade talks with the European Union wrapped by the end of year, after formal talks with French President Emmanuel Macron on the sidelines of the G20 summit on Saturday. Albanese said Australia will not “sign up to an agreement for the sake of having an agreement” but hoped a deal would be in the interest of all.
I’m Royce Kurmelovs, taking the blog through the day.
With that, let’s get started …