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Victoria Police have identified the heavily armed man suspected of killing two police officers in a “cold-blooded” shooting ambush as 56-year-old Dezi Freeman.
The rural Victorian town of Porepunkah, about 300km north-east of Melbourne, spent the night in lockdown as police threw every available resource at tracking down the suspected gunman who killed two of their own and seriously injured a third.
Victoria Police chief commissioner Mike Bush said Freeman was still at large and “heavily armed” with “powerful” and “multiple” firearms.
“Be vigilant. Keep yourselves safe. Please don’t go outside if you don’t need to. We will do everything to find this heavily armed individual. But if you see anything that arouses your suspicion, and you think we need to know, please ring 000 and tell us immediately,” Bush said.
Police believe these are the same guns Freeman used in the shooting.
Victoria Police believe Freeman is in dense bushland. Police have dedicated mass ground and air resources to locate him, but said the conditions were “tough”.
“Our understanding of him [Freeman] is that he understands bush craft well, which provides a challenge for us,” Bush said.
The rural Victorian town of Porepunkah is situated approximately 300km north-east of Melbourne. Source: SBS News
Police would not share specific details about the manhunt.
“It’s very important that we don’t share too much information,” Bush said.
“We don’t know where he is or whether he has access to media.
“We have to be very conscious of that, as to what we put in the public domain other than general search techniques … people on the run will find a way to monitor the media and that assists them in evading us.”
Ten officers were met with gunfire as they attended a property on Rayner Track in Porepunkah on Tuesday morning to execute a search warrant.
A 59-year-old detective and a 35-year-old senior constable were shot dead, while another detective was seriously injured and underwent surgery.
Victoria Police said they would name the officers later on Wednesday, but were still in the process of informing their relatives.
The injured officer is believed to be out of surgery. Police say they were “significantly damaged, but will recover”.
Police have told people to avoid the area. The town of Porepunkah is home to around 1,000 residents. Source: AAP / Allanah Sciberras
Late on Tuesday night, members of the mourning community had come to the Wangaratta Police Station to lay flowers for the fallen officers.
Bush said the man was known to police, and a risk assessment had been conducted before officers executed the search warrant.
The suspect’s partner and children attended a police station on Tuesday evening, police said in a statement. It’s believed they were on the property at the time of the incident.
“It was very important for us to confirm for ourselves by actually meeting with his partner and children to ensure they were safe and this was not a hostage situation,” Bush said.
“There is nothing to suggest they were ever in the company of the suspect,” after the shooting, police said.
Premier Jacinta Allan said on Tuesday Victorians will unite and throw their arms around Victoria Police and the community of Porepunkah.
“In our toughest of times, we reach out and provide support, we provide love, we provide care and make it absolutely clear that this was a hideous criminal act and this offender will be dealt with,” she said.
Prime minister says ‘sovereign citizen’ ideology a concern
Victoria Police said it was “too early to say” if the attack was ideologically motivated.
The ABC reported that police believed the suspected shooter was a “sovereign citizen”. Sovereign citizens view the government as illegitimate and falsely believe they are not subject to laws.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the government was taking their threat, and other far-right extremist views, seriously.
“Mike Burgess, the director-general of ASIO, has been warning about far-right extremism,” Albanese told ABC Radio on Wednesday morning. “We have seen that spread and it is difficult to defend against individuals.”
“This person, Dezi Freeman — who remains on the run — has engaged in an attack in which two police officers have lost their lives and a third has been seriously injured. My heart goes out to the family and friends of those directly affected but also to the police family in Victoria.”
Albanese said earlier that Australia’s security intelligence had warned about “far-right extremism” permeating other nations.
“The fact that this ideology of not seeing themselves being subject to our laws and our society … is of real concern, and ASIO have warned that this threat is very real, and that we need to be very vigilant about it,” he told ABC’s 7.30 program on Tuesday night.
He also drew similarities between the alleged incident to two Queensland officers and a neighbour who were shot dead by so-called sovereign citizens in an ambush in the town of Wieambilla in 2022 after they were called to a welfare check.
Local federal MP Helen Haines said the tragedy had shaken not only Porepunkah, but communities across the country.
Police Association of Victoria secretary Wayne Gatt said his members had paid the “ultimate price” that is often in the back of officers’ minds as they keep the community safe.
The deaths mark the state’s biggest loss of police life since the 2020 Eastern Freeway crash, when four officers died after a truck veered into them as they were impounding a vehicle.
– With additional reporting from Australian Associated Press.
