On the morning of 18 June 2007, an incident unfolded in Melbourne's central business district that left one man dead and two others wounded. Christopher Wayne Hudson, then 31 and a member of the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club, had spent the previous night drinking at a King Street venue. Early on 18 June, he assaulted Autumn Daly-Holt, a workmate of his girlfriend, 24-year-old Kara Douglas. After calling Douglas, who arrived to collect him around 7:30 a.m., Hudson dragged her onto the street by her hair.
At the corner of William Street and Flinders Lane, two bystanders — 43-year-old solicitor Brendan Keilar and 25-year-old Dutch backpacker Paul de Waard — attempted to intervene to help Douglas. Hudson produced a firearm and shot all three. Keilar was fatally wounded in the head and died at the scene. De Waard and Douglas were both shot in the upper body; Douglas subsequently had a kidney removed as a result of her injuries.
Hudson fled the scene, discarding his weapon and jacket at a nearby construction site, where they were recovered by a construction worker roughly an hour later. His abandoned car, a black Honda CRV with New South Wales plates, was found on Flinders Lane; a second vehicle, a black Mercedes-Benz, was later located in Richmond. The Rialto Towers were evacuated amid reports the gunman had entered the building, prompting a floor-by-floor search. Hudson went into hiding for two days at what was described as a Hells Angels safehouse north of the city before surrendering to Victoria Police at Wallan on the evening of 20 June 2007, walking into the police station without incident. He was subsequently charged with murder and other offences.
In the days before the shooting, Hudson had also fired at police in Campbellfield following a night out with Collingwood footballer Alan Didak, who was interviewed by police about the incident but was not named as a suspect in the CBD shooting itself.
Formal charges against Hudson included one count of murder relating to Brendan Keilar, two counts of attempted murder relating to Kara Douglas and Paul de Waard, one count of intentionally causing serious injury relating to Autumn Daly-Holt, and one count of unlawful imprisonment, along with separate charges connected to the Campbellfield shooting incident.
In May 2008, Hudson pleaded guilty to the murder of Brendan Keilar. In September 2008 he was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum non-parole period of 35 years. In 2009, unverified allegations surfaced that Hudson had been tortured by fellow Hells Angels members for drawing police attention to the club; these claims were denied by Victoria Police and were undermined by a photograph provided by Hudson's stepmother. Paul de Waard returned to the Netherlands, where he underwent extended rehabilitation and later spoke publicly about his recovery.
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