A chaotic few minutes and a beloved MP’s life in the balance: a Victorian community grapples with the unfathomable

Tributes are left outside Helen Haines’ electoral office in Wangaratta after the Indi MP was critically injured. Photograph: James Ross/EPA

It sounded like a car accident – as though someone had unintentionally backed into another vehicle on the quiet main street in the north-east Victorian city of Wangaratta.

Across the road, Cody Lepoidevin had been helping a customer in the High Country RoadHouse – an outdoor store directly across from the office of his local federal MP, Helen Haines.