A man believed to have killed two police officers in Victoria was shot dead by police on Monday after a prolonged standoff, authorities said.
Victorian Chief Commissioner Mike Bush said there had been “an opportunity for him to surrender peacefully, which he did not,” and that officers fired after attempts to secure a peaceful surrender failed.
Police have not yet formally identified the man but say they believe him to be 56-year-old Desmonn Freeman, known as “Dezi,” who had been on the run for about seven months. He was shot following a roughly three-hour confrontation at a rural property near Walwa in northeast Victoria.
Freeman has been sought since August, when officers allege he shot dead Detective Neal Thompson and Senior Constable Vadim De Waart and wounded a third officer as police executed a raid on a property at Porepunkah, about 300 km northeast of Melbourne. Police said the August operation was part of an investigation led by the Wangaratta Sexual Offences and Child Abuse Investigation Team; they did not disclose further details of the reason for the search warrant.
The manhunt at one point involved about 450 officers and, Commissioner Bush said, was one of the most significantly resourced police operations in the nation’s history. Investigators believe Freeman evaded capture for months with the help of sympathizers in the region.
On Monday, police tracked him to a caravan on a very remote property. Authorities say he ignored repeated appeals to surrender and was shot at the scene.
Local media have described Freeman as a conspiracy theorist and a member of the so‑called “sovereign citizen” movement, a loose set of beliefs that reject government authority. The Police Association of Victoria said: “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.”
Investigations into the killings and the circumstances of the shooting are ongoing.