Fugitive Dezi Freeman has been shot dead by heavily-armed police in northeast Victoria after seven months on the run.
Freeman, 56, was shot by officers shortly after 8.30am after he was reportedly found in a shipping container near Walwa, 188km northeast of Porepunkah, where he went missing on August 26.
Daily Mail understand police tried to negotiate with the sovereign citizen before he was killed.
Police had received a tip off ‘from someone close to him’ before he was found.
‘A man has been fatally shot by police at a property in northeast Victoria this morning as part of the operation to locate Desmond Freeman,’ police said.
‘No police officers were injured during the incident.’
Freeman was on the run since he fatally shot Detective Leading Senior Constable Neal Thompson, 59, and Senior Constable Vadim de Waart-Hottart, 34, and injured a third officer at Porepunkah, 300km northeast of Melbourne, on August 26.
The three officers were part of a group of ten who had ventured out to his rural property on Rayner Track to serve him a warrant over historical sex-abuse allegations.
Fugitive Dezi Freeman has been shot dead after seven months on the run after reportedly being found inside a shipping container near Walwa, 188km from Porepunkah
Daily Mail understand police tried to negotiate with the sovereign citizen before he was killed
The Porepunkah property where Dezi Freeman shot and killed two Victoria Police officers
Wayne Gatt, secretary of the Police Association Victoria, said the shooting was a ‘step forward’ for the force.
‘Our members said they would find him. They did,’ Gatt said on Monday.
‘Closure isn’t the right word. This represents a step forward for our members, for the families of our fallen members and for the community.
‘It doesn’t lessen the trauma, give back the futures that were callously stolen, or lessen the collective fear and grief that this tragic event has instilled in police and the wider public,’ Gatt said.
He continued: ‘Today, we won’t reflect on the loss of a coward. We will remember the courage and bravery of our fallen members and every officer that has doggedly pursued this outcome for the community.
‘They have worked tirelessly. During the emergency, in the operation that followed and the months thereafter, members across the state have devoted themselves to this singular pursuit.
‘Days like today offer a sobering reminder that policing happens while you sleep, when the media spotlight on an investigation dims and when everything seems lost and forgotten. RIP Vadim and Neal. Today, we remember you.’
The shootings sparked a massive police hunt that saw hundreds of officers scour bushland in and around Freeman’s wilderness retreat located in the shadow of Mount Buffalo.
Police offered one of the largest rewards ever issued in the region, promising $1million for any information to help locate him.
Search crews combed steep, rocky country filled with caves and mineshafts as Porepunkah stayed under lockdown for several days.
Emergency text messages urged locals to stay inside and keep their doors and windows locked.
Freeman’s wife Mali, who police have confirmed was present during the fatal shootings, and a 15-year-old boy were previously arrested but released without charge.
Several days later, Ms Freeman issued a statement urging her husband to surrender.
Well over 100 properties in the region were searched as police investigated whether any associates were helping Freeman evade arrest.
Police in December revealed they had shifted their search efforts to locating the body of the self-described ‘sovereign citizen’, however a five-day effort to scour the bush with cadaver dogs and drones yielded nothing.
Freeman subscribed to the sovereign citizen movement’s ideology.
Freeman shot dead Detective Leading Senior Constable Neal Thompson, 59
Freeman also shot dead Senior Constable Vadim de Waart-Hottart, 34
Freeman had been a sovereign citizen
Dezi Freeman alongside his wife Mali
Adopters of this worldview usually believe the government is illegitimate and that the law does not apply to them.
Footage illegally filmed and published online from a court appearance of Freeman in Wangaratta in November 2024 showed him enacting behaviour akin to the ideology by attempting to arrest the magistrate and police officers.
The hearing was one of several disruptive court appearances in which Freeman demonstrated his contempt for the legal system.
More to come…
