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Police have warned anyone caught harbouring a fugitive accused of shooting dead two officers will face serious consequences as the “protracted search” continues.
Detective leading senior constable Neal Thompson, 59, and senior constable Vadim De Waart, 35, were shot dead while attempting to serve a search warrant at a Porepunkah property on Tuesday.
Another wounded officer is expected to recover after undergoing surgery.
The accused gunman Dezi Freeman — also known as Desmond Filby — fled into bushland, plunging the town of about 1,000 residents in Victoria’s high country into lockdown as police continue the search operation.
Deputy commissioner Regional Operations Russell Barrett described the search as protracted and revealed police were searching “a number of properties” as part of their inquiries.
“What I would say to the community and say to anyone who may be considering harbouring or supporting him, they need to reconsider,” he told reporters in Wangaratta on Thursday afternoon.
“They’re committing a criminal offence, and we will prosecute them.”
The property Freeman was living on is now vacant and there have been no confirmed sightings of him since he fled into bushland, Barrett said.
Superintendent Brett Kahan said police had no evidence Freeman had access to communications but had a message if he was watching.
“Ring triple zero, and we will support a surrender plan, that option is absolutely open to him,” he said.
The weather in the alpine region continued to deteriorate, as hundreds of police continued to scour the area by land and air.
Low-lying fog had lifted in the area by the early afternoon before the inclement weather returned.
Kahan said the terrain was dangerous, with police treading carefully.
“It’s not something that we, even with our specialist resources, can move through quickly,” he said.
Freeman was last seen wearing dark green tracksuit pants, a dark green rain jacket, brown Blundstone boots and reading glasses, police said.
Tributes flow for slain officers
Monuments across Victoria have been lit up in blue in tribute to Thompson and De Waart and the bodies of the fallen officers were given a guard of honour by flashing-light police cars as they were taken to Melbourne’s Coroners Court on Wednesday night.
Grieving community members have come out to decorate the foyer of the nearby Wangaratta police station with colourful bouquets of flowers in memory of the fallen policemen.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese led a moment of silence for the pair in federal parliament on Thursday.
Flags remained at half-mast at Victorian government buildings on Thursday and Premier Jacinta Allan expressed her deepest sympathies to the family, friends and colleagues of the two officers.
“It’s a very physical way that we can say to the men and women of Victoria Police, we stand with you, we support you, we care for you, we love you, particularly in this time of grief,” Allan said.
“We continue to provide every support necessary to the work of Victoria Police as they deal with this individual who perpetrated this most evil and awful of criminal act.”
