UNTIL last weekend, David Lutteral was a knockabout radio personality with a nice line in cheeky patter. But since a session at a Brisbane bar last Sunday evening ended with "Luttsy" spending time in intensive care, he has become the catalyst for a public debate about the acceptance of violence in today's society.
He was off his nut at 9PM, harassing women, mouthing off to guys and didn't remember leaving the nightclub he was at. Real class act, you think we'd be hearing about it if he wasn't a "personality"?
I rather believe that time is a companion who goes with us on the journey and reminds us to cherish every moment, because it will never come again. - Captain Jean-Luc Picard
That's sooooo true. I didn't know who this Wally was until he appeared on my news website for the Courier Mail last Monday. I would absolutely LOVE to say what I really think of the whole sorry episode but... I will err on the side of discretion and save myself from being howled down by those who don't think he deserved a punch to the nose! I did comment on the news site what I thought of Luttsy and his behaviour.
Mokbel facing extradition from Greece By Europe correspondent Rafael Epstein
Fugitive Melbourne drug lord Tony Mokbel has appeared before a Greek court charged with forgery after he was captured in a coastal suburb near the capital Athens.
The Australian Government has already begun moves to have Mokbel extradited for murder and to serve a nine-year sentence for cocaine smuggling.
After more than a year on the run, Mokbel was arrested as he sat in a cafe in a public square in the upmarket area of Glyfada .
Giorgos Holidis, a spokesman at Greece's Public Order Ministry, says Mokbel was seized after local police were tipped off by Australian authorities.
Mr Holidis says Mokbel was heavily disguised.
The fugitive later appeared before a Greek magistrate charged with forgery, and the court heard he had been carrying a fake drivers licence and passport.
Mokbel has been living with his girlfriend and six-month-old baby and appears to have set himself up as a businessman with an interest in imports and exports.
He has already been sentenced by a Melbourne court to at least nine years in jail for smuggling cocaine. He is also wanted over a 2004 murder that was part of a series of underworld killings.
Mokbel disappeared while on bail near the end of his smuggling trial just over a year ago, and was believed to still be in contact with associates in Melbourne.
Police had offered a $1 million reward for information leading to information about his whereabouts.
Emergency crews have scaled back their presence at the site of a fatal rail accident in north-western Victoria.
Eleven people are confirmed dead in Victoria's worst rail accident in over 30 years. Three people are still unaccounted for.
A passenger train travelling from Swan Hill to Melbourne derailed yesterday afternoon after it was struck by a truck at a level crossing north of Kerang.
At least 12 people are seriously injured in Kerang Hospital and another five have been flown to Melbourne in a serious to critical condition, including a 15-year-old girl and the truck driver.
Acting police inspector Michael Talbott says investigators will return to the scene of the accident at first light this morning, but say they do not expect to find any more survivors.
"We've done all we can tonight, it's too dangerous to start trying to remove bodies or open up the train in any way," he said.
At least four separate investigations have been launched into the accident, which happened at a level crossing with no boom gates.
Victorian Premier Steve Bracks inspected the site last night and has offered his condolences and support to the families of the deceased.
"It's an horrific scene and obviously one of the worst accidents scenes ever in Victoria's history," he said.
"Our care and attention now is for the families of those who lost their lives tragically and who are receiving medical attention.
"We've now set up a hotline with V/Line, we now obviously have counselling for family and friends involved, and those people who have suffered injuries, and there's a lot more work to be done and currently that's happening now."
No boom gates WTF? That isn't an accident waiting to happen. It will be interesting to hear how this occured despite that, news reports said the truck hit the second car of a loco pulled train which sounds a bit odd given the length of a locomotive and a car it also seemed to be an open area from the footage I saw, like it would be impossible not to see the train comming down. A previous accident involved a truck not stopping and nudging a car onto the track!
I rather believe that time is a companion who goes with us on the journey and reminds us to cherish every moment, because it will never come again. - Captain Jean-Luc Picard
First-class fracas, but facts remain in a sky-high fog June 9, 2007
Something went on during an Etihad flight, but that is all the first-class passengers can agree upon, writes Robert Wainwright.
THE champagne was warm and the entertainment system kaput. These are the only two things on which everyone in the first class cabin of Etihad flight 451 agrees.
What happened over the next 14 hours as it flew from Sydney to Abu Dhabi on April 26 remains shrouded in accusation and denial as the antics of three passengers caused an international incident which landed two of them in a desert prison for six weeks and ended in deportation and suspended sentences for offences they emphatically deny.
The Herald has been in contact or is aware of the versions of 11 of the 12 passengers in the $9500-a-head "Diamond Zone", including two leading Sydney businessmen, a judge, a Canadian businessman, a company chairman, two mining executives, a union leader and his wife, a retired seaman and a farmer/would-be author.
Mining executives David Evans and Jeremy Snaith, the two main culprits later given suspended jail sentences in a United Arab Emirates court, were seated at the back of the cabin and rightly annoyed that their seats would not work properly and the sound system was faulty.
"They were rowdy and started complaining about the champagne being hot and the entertainment system from the moment they got onboard," recalled a Sydney businessman who sat beside the men.
Richard Williams and his wife Michele, on their way to a study tour and sitting in front of the pair, concurred: "They were at it from the moment we sat down," Mr Williams, a union official, said. "I told Michele they were the ugly face of Australians overseas".
The complaints subsided as the flight proceeded but the two men continued to drink, according to those around them, including a Canadian sitting next to Mrs Williams.
A travel agent who booked the trip for a judge sitting in 1G also confirmed there were problems: "Our client enjoyed the flight except for the behaviour of some of the fellow passengers."
Several hours into the flight the trouble began again. Mr Snaith and Mr Evans, also unhappy at the standard of food, moved into a lounge area at the front of first class where they met retired seaman Bill Sergent, on his way to Edinburgh, who had been sitting at the front.
Six passengers said the antics grew more boisterous and the men began baiting the three hostesses: "I could see them from where I sat and I'd say they were partying," said one of the Sydney businessmen.
The Canadian concurred: "Big Dave, Jeremy and [Sergent] were demanding champagne, cognac and port," he wrote in an email obtained by the Herald. "Big Dave was very loud and used profanities … He was complaining about everything and giving [crew] a real hard time."
It got worse. The businessman said he watched one of the men fondle one of the hostesses: "He had his hand on her behind and her response was quite hostile."
Then, as the crew tried to get them back to their seats, one of the men took off his trousers: " I was absolutely shocked. I couldn't believe what was happening in an aircraft."
The co-captain stepped out of the cockpit to confront the men. They could hear the commotion through the wall and were even considering diverting the plane.
Eventually the men returned to their seats and the Canadian helped a bare-chested Mr Evans to bed: "I took his shirt which was inside out, and dressed him. I tucked him in bed and covered him. He said, 'thank you for looking after me'."
Mr Williams watched the man assist Mr Evans but the peace did not last long. His wife had a run-in with one of the men who was still wandering the aisles a few hours later and woke her.
"He was drunk, mate; it was as simple as that," Mr Williams said. "I told him he was making the trip a misery for everyone else."
But here's where the story gets tricky. Lawyers for the three men say alcohol tests after arriving came back showing Mr Evans and Mr Sergent had no alcohol in their system and Mr Snaith measured just .06.
That last statement that there was little to no alcohol in their systems is just plain BS IMHO!
Seven feared dead in NSW storms June 08, 2007 09:15am TWO people are dead and five missing in the floodwaters caused by the violent storms that have forced NSW Premier Morris Iemma to declare a natural disaster in the Hunter and Central Coast regions.
Flooding, evacuations, strandings, blackouts, landslides, commuter and traffic chaos and thousands of calls to emergency services have all been overshadowed by the grave concern for a family missing on the Central Coast.
Torrential rain has prevented rescuers from searching for the family of five missing after a road collapsed yesterday, sending their car crashing into a massive subsidence and into a flooded creek.
The family's sedan was found in the treacherous floodwaters 100 metres down the swollen creek near Gosford, but the occupants have not been found, police said.
The car went crashing down the embankment when part of the Old Pacific Highway near Somersby collapsed under it, creating a gorge many metres deep and 10 metres wide across the roadway.
Police say two adults and three children, aged two, three, and nine, are missing from the car, and heavy rain has prevented rescuers from searching for the family.
Meanwhile, the bodies of an elderly couple whose four-wheel-drive was swept off a bridge at Clarence Town, near Dungog, in the Hunter Valley, yesterday have been found.
Falls of over 150mm were reported yesterday in the Hunter with widespread flash flooding.
Winds today are expected to average over 65 km/h with peak wind gusts to exceed 90 km/h in the Hunter, Sydney metropolitan and Illawarra, particularly near the coast.
Four killed in horror 4WD crash Sophia Browne June 09, 2007 12:00am
FOUR people are dead, including one toddler, after a horrific head-on collision between a four-wheel-drive and a sedan on the Kennedy Highway near Cairns.
Emergency services rushed to the western Atherton Tableland, 15km west of Mt Garnet, at 10pm yesterday, The Cairns Post reported.
Police were able to confirm the deceased three adults and a toddler were all travelling in the sedan, but details late last night were sketchy as emergency services dealt with the shocking start to the Queens Birthday long weekend.
Mokbel compares himself to Hicks Tuesday Jun 12 05:00 AEST By ninemsn staff
Tony Mokbel has compared himself to convicted terrorist David Hicks, saying he will be treated like a Guantanamo Bay convict if he is extradited to Melbourne.
In a new interview from his Athens jail cell, Mokbel told the Herald Sun he had stopped in the Philippines and Dubai during his run from Australian authorities.
The captured gangland fugitive said Greece was the first country he had spent a substantial amount of time.
He predicted it might be as long as five years before he is extradited back to Australia.
"I'm glad to stay longer (in jail) in Greece. I am not going to get a fair go in Australia."
"I want to go back, but the case is too prejudiced," he said.
Mokbel likened time he once spent in solitary confinement in Melbourne to Hicks' false imprisonment in Guantanamo Bay.
"Eventually, his offences were found not to have been as severe as claimed," Mokbel said. "I hope the end result is similar for me." He also revealed his five-month-old new baby, Renate, who was born while he was on the run, was unplanned. "We didn't plan it, it happened," he said. "I wasn't aware of it until some months down the track. Danielle wanted to keep her. I'm glad, she's a beautiful baby." The drug boss said he would like to marry his girlfriend Danielle, but is unsure she will accept the offer. "We haven't been married. I hope one day we will," he said. "I believe every woman in the world deserves a beautiful wedding. If I ever get that chance, I will make it up to her. "It will be a pleasure to marry her, if she waits that long." Mokbel claimed he was not living a life of crime in Greece, and was planning on opening a restaurant and working in the kitchen. The gangland suspect also said he would like the $1 million Victoria Police reward on his head to be given to the Royal Children's Hospital. Australian police are continuing to finalise extradition procedures to bring Mokbel back to Australia to begin serving the 12-year prison sentence he fled last year.
http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=272410 What a moron this guy is! Comparing himself to David Hicks, what a load! The Vic. Police will not be giving a reward to anyone I would imagine because it was Interpol and the Federal Police and Authroities in Greece who were ultimately the reason for his capture. Not any one tip off! Good grief!
Sun sets on Lara Bingle June 12, 2007 12:00am
HANG up your bikini, Lara Bingle - here comes Japan's Yoshino Kimura. Kimura may soon star in a new taxpayer-funded Australian soap opera as part of an attempt to reverse a plunge in Japanese visitor numbers.
The brainchild of Tourism Minister Fran Bailey, the TV series will be shot in Australia with well-known Japanese actors and screened in Japan.
It will aim to replicate the so-called "Neighbours effect" that draws British tourists to Australia in large numbers.
Ms Bailey could not say how much the show would cost, but it would get funding from Tourism Australia's $193 million marketing budget.
Labor tourism spokesman Martin Ferguson dismissed the plan as a stunt.
But Ms Bailey said she hoped the series would screen in Japan within 12 months and reverse an 8.5 per cent plunge in Japanese visitors.
Ms Bailey was behind the $180 million "Where the Bloody Hell Are You?" ad campaign, which failed in Japan.
The minister said she had some ideas on possible storylines.
"One is to have a group of people travelling around Australia and having adventures, meeting Australian characters -- well-known ones as well as your ordinary, everyday Australians," she said.
Ms Bailey said the show would have to have dramatic merit, and be commercially viable.
The series would have to feature top Japanese actors to work, she said.
She spoke in glowing terms of Kimura, a popular starlet whom she met on a recent trip to Japan.
"She is held in very high esteem in her country," Ms Bailey said.
She got the idea from a popular Japanese book featuring a group of young Japanese who find love in the Australian bush.
The show would feature tourist icons such as Uluru and the Sydney Opera House.
Characters would also visit local sights such as the Healesville Sanctuary and the Great Ocean Rd, Ms Bailey said.
Mr Ferguson said reviving the $2 billion Japanese tourist market could not be left to a soap opera.
"The problem is very real and requires a serious solution," he said.
But Ms Bailey said she was completely focused on the problem.
"Instead of pulling the rug over your head . . . I just don't believe you can sit on your hands and not try something different."
Fishermen missing after weekend trip June 12, 2007 - 5:59AM
Two elderly men have gone missing following a weekend fishing trip.
The men, aged 71 and 72, travelled to the Lake Eucumbene area in the Snowy Mountains on Saturday and were expected to return by noon (AEST) on Sunday, police say.
The men had warm clothing, food, a sleeping bag and a blanket.
A search has yet to begin since the men did not tell family members exactly where they were headed but Polair may conduct a general search of the area today.
The men were driving a blue Suzuki Vitara with the NSW registration ATD 15N.
Flood threat eases, clean-up begins June 12, 2007 - 8:50AM
Now the threat of further flooding in the NSW Hunter Valley and Central Coast appears over, the focus is on the mammoth clean-up.
Floodwaters are subsiding north of Newcastle, but the savage storms that began last Thursday have taken a devastating toll.
Nine lives have been lost, farmland and rural properties remain under water, businesses and homes have been wrecked, thousands are still without power and the damage bill is expected to run into the tens of millions of dollars.
The education department's asking students at 82 schools in the Hunter region to stay home today and TAFE campuses at Glendale, Hamilton and Wyong are closed.
Police are warning of traffic delays on major roads from the Hunter and Central Coast into Sydney as flooding continues to disrupt rail services.
And there are fears of disease due to overflowing sewage systems and flooding, particularly on the Central Coast.
Mr Iemma says the situation's being closely monitored and action's being taken to prevent any outbreak of infection.
Hospital 'told mother to bury foetus in backyard' Friday Jun 15 06:00 AEST By ninemsn staff
A grieving mother says staff at Royal Darwin Hospital told her to bury a 17-week foetus in her backyard after she suffered a miscarriage.
Fiona Peters was forced to walk out of the hospital carrying the dead foetus on an uncovered kidney tray just four hours after she miscarried, NT News reports.
She kept the remains in her kitchen refrigerator for five hours while she decided what to do.
Peters, 35, was taken to Royal Darwin by ambulance after giving birth prematurely at her home in Moulden, Palmerston on March 26.
She and her husband Craig Redriff were shocked at the staff reaction upon entering the hospital with their dead child, who they had named Kaden.
Peters said she asked staff what she should do: "What happens now? What happens to his body?''
"All of them informed us that we take him home,'' she said.
"One even suggested we could always bury him in the backyard.''
If Kaden had been just three weeks older, he would have been weighed, issued a birth certificate and required to be buried formally.
But because he was only at 17 weeks, the hospital classified the remains as "tissue".
A nurse wrapped the foetus in a wet cloth, and handed the remains to the couple on a green kidney tray before asking them to leave the hospital.
"They said he was classified as a piece of tissue matter, but he wasn't — he was my baby," said Peters, who has two other children, aged four and nine.
"He was fully formed — he even had finger nails, which we really did not expect.''
The couple took the remains to a funeral home for burial later that evening.
"We didn't know what we were supposed to do with his body — this is Darwin and it gets hot,'' she said.
Royal Darwin general manager Robin Michael said the issue was being investigated.
"We acknowledge this situation is traumatic and, as a hospital, we have empathy with the family,'' she said.
Dad flees crash where son died Michael Wray June 15, 2007 12:00am A FATHER fled from the car wreck in which his two-year-old son died and his partner and 10-month-old son were trapped last night on the Gold Coast, police said.
Witnesses reported seeing the man run along the banks of a small creek as his partner screamed from the front passenger seat "my baby, my baby".
Kylie Bedard, 22, was at home when she heard a woman screaming and said she ran to the "horrific" scene.
Regional duty officer, Inspector Paul Ziebarth, said the driver, in his late 20s, presented himself to the Gold Coast Hospital about 7.30pm, an hour after the crash.
"At this stage we understand he's the father of the children," Insp Ziebarth said.
Police were interviewing the driver last night. He was in a stable condition.
One witness reported seeing the car "fishtailing" as it travelled west on Cotlew St East, in Southport, before crashing and overturning up to four times.
Insp Ziebarth said the road was well lit and dry at the time of the crash.
He appealed for witnesses to contact police.
"Fire and ambulance services were on the scene in a very short time, however, a two-year-old child was pronounced dead at the scene and a 10-month-old child is in a critical condition at Gold Coast Hospital, along with the children's mother," he said.
Fire crews had to rip the roof from the car to remove the children, Insp Ziebarth said.
Australian comedian Barry Humphries, better known as Dame Edna Everage, has been awarded the Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) by Queen Elizabeth II.
Author Salman Rushdie, issued with a fatwa by Iran's revolutionary leader 18 years ago, and former England cricketer Ian Botham were also among those receiving honours on the Queen's annual Birthday Honours List, with both men being awarded knighthoods.
The nominations, transforming them into Sir Salman and Sir Ian, topped a long list of awards bestowed on artists, sportsmen, diplomats, journalists and others.
Sir Ian, England's most famous all-rounder, played Test cricket from 1977- 1992, notching up 5,200 runs and 383 wickets. He has also raised millions of dollars for children's cancer charities with a series of epic walks.
The star, who said he was "delighted" by the honour, is still one of Britain's best-loved sportsmen, not least because of his colourful past - he was once briefly suspended from the England team for smoking cannabis.
Indian-born Sir Salman was forced to go into hiding for a decade after Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a death sentence over his book The Satanic Verses claiming it insulted Islam.
His second novel, Midnight's Children, won the prestigious Booker Prize in 1981 and was named the best novel in 25 years of the prize in 1993. Sir Salman is also a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.
"I am thrilled and humbled to receive this great honour and am very grateful that my work has been recognised in this way," he said.
Despite intense media speculation, there was no knighthood for former England football captain David Beckham, who is soon to leave Spanish giants Real Madrid for Los Angeles Galaxy in the United States.
Australian comedian Barry Humphries, better known as Dame Edna Everage, has been awarded the Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) by Queen Elizabeth II.
I'm seeing Barry Humphries live soon and I cant wait. I don't know if he deserves the CBE but he sure is funny!
“Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.” ~ Winston Churchill
BEIJING: The remains of a giant, birdlike dinosaur as tall as the formidable tyrannosaur have been found in China, a surprising discovery that indicates a more complicated evolutionary process for birds than originally thought, scientists said Wednesday. Fossilized bones uncovered in the Erlian Basin of northern China's Inner Mongolia region show that the specimen was about 8 meters (26 feet) in length, 5 meters (16 feet) tall and weighed 1,400 kilograms (3,000 pounds), said Xu Xing, a paleontologist at the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology & Paleoanthropology in Beijing. The height is comparable to the meat-eating tyrannosaurs, but the dinosaur, called Gigantoraptor elrianensis, also had a beak and slender legs and likely had feathers, making it 35 times larger than its likely close relation, the Caudiperyx, a small, feathered dinosaur species, Xu said. That puts the Gigantoraptor's existence at odds with prevailing theories that dinosaurs became smaller as they evolved into birds and that bigger dinosaurs have less birdlike characteristics, he said. "This is like having mouse that is the size of a horse or cow," said Xu, who co-authored a paper on the finding published Thursday in the journal Nature. "It is very important information for us in our efforts to trace the evolution process of dinosaurs to birds. It's more complicated than we imagined." The Caudiperyx and the Gigantoraptor belong to a group of dinosaurs called oviraptors, which tend to be human-sized or smaller. In recent years paleontologists have found turkey-sized, feathered representatives of the group, but they've never found anything close to the scale of Gigantoraptor. "It's one of the last groups of dinosaurs that we would expect to be that big," said Mark Norell, curator of paleontology at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. But Philip Currie, a paleontologist at the University of Alberta, said the size of the Gigantoraptor would be a natural step in the evolutionary process of the oviraptors. "Almost every group that has evolved has tended to evolve giant forms," Currie said. Animals tend to become bigger with evolution because larger creatures have an easier time getting food, impressing potential mates and avoiding predators. But size has disadvantages, too. Bigger animals need more food and territory. They have fewer offspring and reproduce less frequently than smaller animals do. That means they are particularly vulnerable when environmental conditions change, as they abruptly did about 65 million years ago. Just a few million years after Gigantoraptor evolved, it and every other dinosaur species on Earth became extinct. On Wednesday, reporters were given a look at the Gigantoraptor's remains — two yellowing, rough-edged leg bones both a little over 1 meter (3.2 feet) long and believed to be those of a young adult. It hasn't been determined if the Gigantoraptor was a herbivore, which have small heads and long necks, or a carnivore, which have sharp claws. The dinosaur has both, Xu said. Xu and his team, which discovered three other specimens in the fossil-rich Erlian Basin, were being interviewed by Japanese media in 2005 when they discovered the Gigantoraptor remains. They had chosen a random site to illustrate how one of the previous fossils had been discovered and hit upon a bone while on camera, Xu said. The team originally thought that it belonged to a tyrannosaur because of its size, but realized upon examination that it was an oviraptor. "It was an unexpected finding," Xu said. Associated Press writer Matt Crenson in New York contributed to this story.
Child brings heroin to day care A FIVE-year-old boy brought small packets of heroin to his New York day care centre and told other children it was candy, police have said.
Six children were rushed by ambulance to a hospital and later released.
The boy, his two-year-old sister and another two-year-old girl apparently swallowed some of the drug.
None were reported to have been seriously injured in the incident.
The boy's parents, Wayne Clamp and Kari Lyn Lee, said their son must have found the heroin as his mother walked him and his two sisters to the centre.
The parents said neither of them uses drugs and insisted the heroin did not come from their house.
I rather believe that time is a companion who goes with us on the journey and reminds us to cherish every moment, because it will never come again. - Captain Jean-Luc Picard
This is happening just over a block away from me. Saw the cops blocking the roads off on my way to work this morning. I'd support bringing back Vic Police's 'shoort first' policy in this instance.
One story I've heard is the people that were shot came to the aid of the woman in the taxi.
Quoted Text
One dead, gunman at large The Age, Staff reporters, June 18, 2007
A massive manhunt is under way in the city after at least three people were shot this morning, one fatally, by a gunman who apparently knew his victims.
Police, led by the Special Operations Group, have locked down a huge section of the central business district as they hunt for a man who blasted three people at close range about 8.20am.
One victim, a man, died as he was treated by paramedics outside a cafe at the corner of William Street and Flinders Lane, at the western end of the city. Another woman and a man have been taken to Royal Melbourne Hospital with gunshot wounds to their upper bodies.
Inspector Stephen Mutton confirmed three people had been shot and a man had died. He said police were looking for a man wearing dark clothing and cap, last seen running up Flinders Lane with a handgun.
The offender is described as male, about 192cms tall, with short light brown hair and wearing a denim jacket and black jeans.
Rialto building sealed
Police have sealed the Rialto building as they hunt for the gunman. The city is closed between William, Flinders, Collins and Spencer streets and police have reportedly begun evacuating some buildings.
Police Inspector Glenn Weir said police had cordoned off an area around the shooting scene near the corner of Flinders Lane and William Street and were combing the district to find the man.
He asked people in the area not to panic.
"There is an extensive search underway to try and find the offender at the moment," Inspector Weir said.
"There are numerous police attending to the search within the vicinity of the incident and there is a large cordon and containment operation underway as we speak.
"We are just asking the public not to panic and assist police if requested and if you have no business being in the vicinity of Flinders Lane and William Street please keep out of the area."
Appears gunman knew victims
Inspector Weir said it appeared the gunman knew the victims.
"There is no suggestion this is a random act - it appears there was a relation with the gunman and the victims, so we are asking people not to panic,'' he told ABC radio.
Malcolm Bates, a witness, said before the shooting broke out the gunman grabbed a woman by the neck as she sat in a taxi, and tried to get into the vehicle.
"The lady got away and he turned and shot three people basically point blank,'' Mr Bates said. "I was right across the road.''
He told ABC radio the gunman then ran down Flinders Lane toward the city centre.
He said the whole scenario took no longer than "the wink of an eye''.
Shooter fled on foot
Police wearing bullet-proof vests were scouring the area, and police helicopters hovered overhead.
Inspector Weir said the last confirmed sighting of the gunman was east of the shooting scene, on Flinders Lane.
Police are urging workers in the area to stay in their offices.
One witness, Brian Cotterell, told theage.com.au he went outside after hearing shots to see "three people lying on the ground".
The covered body of the dead man was still in the street, outside a cafe on the south-east corner of Williams Street and Flinders Lane. Two backpacks are on the ground close by.
A Victoria Police spokesman said at least three shots had been fired, reportedly outside the cafe, in the Williams Street and Flinders Lane area just before 8.30am.
CONTINUES TONIGHT! 6.30pm eVSC Fan Favourites 7.00pm eVSC Grand Finale : Compilation 7.12pm eVSC Grand Finale : Results #1 & #2 All times in AEDST. Air times and/or dates subject to delays.
Logged
I would absolutely LOVE to say what I really think of the whole sorry episode but... I will err on the side of discretion and save myself from being howled down by those who don't think he deserved a punch to the nose! 
I did comment on the news site what I thought of Luttsy and his behaviour. 
