True Crime
Victoria Police charged Brendan Nugent, 43, after a vehicle struck independent MP Helen Haines outside her Wangaratta office.
Detectives charged Brendan Nugent, 43, of Tarrawingee, late Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2026, with dangerous driving causing serious injury, intentionally causing serious injury, and causing harm to a Commonwealth public official, ABC News Australia reported. Police will allege the strike outside Helen Haines's Wangaratta office was targeted, and he is due in Wangaratta Magistrates' Court on Wednesday.
By Crime Talk Network Staff Writer · · Updated
Tuesday's filing is the charge, and it names Brendan Nugent. It includes a federal count that ABC News Australia reported carries up to 10 years, and police will allege the strike was targeted. He is due in Wangaratta Magistrates' Court on Wednesday, Oct. 21.
Victoria Police detectives charged Brendan Nugent, 43, of Great Alpine Road, Tarrawingee, late Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2026, Australian time, ABC News Australia reported. The counts are dangerous driving causing serious injury, intentionally causing serious injury, and the federal offense of causing harm to a Commonwealth public official. ABC reported that the federal count carries up to 10 years. Police will allege that the incident was targeted, and they said it appears isolated, with no other known threats. Nugent was held overnight. He is due in Wangaratta Magistrates' Court on Wednesday, Oct. 21, local time. Tuesday's document is the charge sheet. Wednesday is the court date those reports give.
The strike was Monday afternoon, Oct. 19, local time, outside Haines's electorate office on Murphy Street in Wangaratta. Haines is 65 and has been the independent member of Parliament for Indi since 2019. She was at the boot of her car. Witness accounts relayed by government ministers, in an AAP report, say the four-wheel drive made a U-turn, struck her, reversed, and struck her again. Police had described the vehicle as a white Toyota LandCruiser and had put the time at about 3:35 p.m. ABC News Australia confirmed that she has lost one leg and that doctors are fighting to save the other. She was pinned between two cars. She was critical but stable at The Alfred hospital in Melbourne.
AAP reported that Wangaratta barber Ricky Jefferies held the driver behind the wheel, and that Jefferies says the driver had a knife. Police said a knife was seized from the Toyota, and that a highway patrol unit arrived 8 seconds after the emergency call. On Tuesday morning police executed a search warrant at the property on Great Alpine Road. Jefferies's account is what a witness told reporters he did and what he says he saw. The seizure is what police said they took from the vehicle.
Acting Superintendent Ashley Mason said there was no recent evidence that Nugent was on authorities' radar. Australian Federal Police Commissioner Krissy Barrett called the strike a standalone incident and said there was no ongoing danger. Counter-terrorism authorities are investigating. On Monday, before Nugent was named and before any charge was announced, Mason had told ABC there was no indication of a motive and no indication the driver and Haines were known to each other. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese had told the ABC the same day, "This wasn't an accident." Tuesday's allegation that the strike was targeted is the account police attached to the charges. Barrett's description of a standalone incident is the commissioner's account of the danger to anyone else.
ABC News Australia, The Guardian, AAP, 7NEWS, and The Age reported that Nugent's father, Rod Nugent, and partner Christine Cunningham said Haines had been their friend for more than 20 years. They called what happened "devastating and unfathomable," thanked the people who helped her, and said they will assist police. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
Shop
Checkout is on Shopify. A few from the rack:
More on the desk
By Crime Talk Network Staff Writer
Dequarius Nash was arrested on a first-degree murder charge in the South Memphis shooting death of Kendarish Conrad.
Wednesday's booking is an arrest on a first-degree murder charge, five aggravated-assault counts and a firearm count. Action News 5 reported Terrence Jeffries Jr. and Terrance Munson were already arrested and indicted in May. Their indictment is not a finding about Nash. The store address is 1335 South Bellevue in the station's Thursday story, 1385 South Bellevue in Memphis police releases, and the 1300 block in the Marshals release.
Read the take
Reporting noted by Action News 5, Memphis Police Department, and U.S. Marshals Service.
By Crime Talk Network Staff Writer
Sheriff's officials named Edward Villa as the suspect after Katie Kinder, her son and her mother were found shot to death in Happy Valley.
Thursday's briefing names the three people and names Villa as the only suspect. The warrant was three counts of first-degree murder. He was found dead before an arrest. KPTV, citing Warrenton police, called it an apparent self-inflicted gunshot. KGW reported Detective Matt Lysaght would not go past a gunshot deputies heard, a firearm in the room, and the fact that no officer fired. KPTV and OPB call the motel the South Jetty Inn. The Oregonian calls it the South Jetty Motel.
Read the take
Reporting noted by KGW, KPTV, The Oregonian, and OPB.
By Crime Talk Network Staff Writer
An Oahu grand jury indicted Orion Satori on a second-degree murder charge in the Young Street stabbing of Kiril Stoimenov.
An indictment means a grand jury found enough to send the case forward. It is not a finding of guilt. Police have said Satori did the stabbing, according to Hawaii News Now. The next step is arraignment, where he will be asked to enter a plea. Second-degree murder in Hawaii carries a maximum of life with the possibility of parole, the station reported.
Read the take
Reporting noted by Hawaii News Now and Honolulu Prosecutor's Office.