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This was not a manhunt that ended in a high-speed chase. It was a confrontation that arrived with a quiet stealth, sprung from a tip-off, two days of bated breath under police surveillance, concluding in a shootout that would leave Dezi Freeman dead – wrapped in a doona – on the terrain that had for months concealed him.
In an abrupt conclusion to Australia’s most intensive manhunt, Freeman emerged from his hideout – a makeshift structure described as half shipping container, half caravan – shrouded in the bedding cover, a white-knuckle grip on a gun that may have been owned by one of the officers he killed just after 10.30am on August 26, seven months ago.
For more than 200 days, Freeman was a ghost in the bush, eluding police on his own stomping ground, leaving many in the force to believe he’d died that deadly day he slew two officers, with a bullet to his own head.
Instead, Freeman was killed on Monday about 8.30am – three hours after police asked him to surrender. Police are investigating whether he was holding the same gun he stole from officers months ago.
The property where Freeman was holed up sits on the edge of the area that was ravaged in early January by the bushfires around Walwa, a nearby town. Authorities even released a Watch and Act alert in January for the area abutting the property where Freeman was staying.
Police were last week tipped off about Freeman hiding near Walwa, 200 kilometres north-east from Porepunkah, according to police sources unauthorised to speak on the record.
Satellite imagery shows the sprawling property was studded with multiple buildings, among them two containers, a caravan and several disused trucks and cars.
At a packed press conference in Melbourne on Monday detailing “Operation Summit”, Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Mike Bush entered with the four leading investigators in the case. He told reporters that police still had to complete the formal identification process before confirming Freeman had been killed.
But “everything I know at this moment tells me the shooting was justified”, Bush said. “There was an opportunity for him to surrender peacefully, which he did not.”
The police chief would not confirm if a tip-off from Freeman’s associates helped officers zero in on the property, but said detectives were still investigating connections between the owners of the property near Walwa and Freeman.
“We’re very keen to learn who if any, but I’m sure some, assisted him in getting away from Porepunkah to where he was located, but that’s a very important part of what comes next,” Bush said. “And if anyone was complicit, they will be held to account.”
But no one else had been in “the immediate vicinity” of the stand-off at the property on Monday and no one had been charged as investigators worked with the coroner to set up a crime scene at the remote hideout.
Earlier, in a brief statement, police confirmed a man was fatally shot by officers about 8.30am. “No police officers were injured during the incident,” the statement read.
“The state coroner will attend the scene and the investigation will be oversighted by Professional Standards Command, as per standard process for a police shooting.”
Freeman was last seen in the Mount Buffalo area after the shooting deaths of Senior Constable Vadim de Waart-Hottart, 35, and Detective Leading Senior Constable Neal Thompson, 59, at a rural property in Porepunkah on August 26 last year. They were among a group of 10 officers at the property serving Freeman with a warrant.
A third officer was injured in the August 26 shootings.
The families of the two slain officers were among the first to learn of Freeman’s death on Monday.
De Waart-Hottart’s parents, who live in Belgium, are currently in Melbourne after attending a ceremony last week which marked the 40th anniversary of the 1986 Russell Street bombing, in which policewoman Angela Taylor was killed.
Specialist police units conducted a number of unsuccessful searches, including with cadaver dogs, in the months since Freeman’s disappearance but were unable to locate him.
“Our members said they would find him. They did,” Police Association of Victoria secretary Wayne Gatt said in a statement following news of the shooting.
Gatt said Freeman’s death did not lessen the trauma he had caused or “give back the futures that were callously stolen”, but it represented a step forward.
“Today, we won’t reflect on the loss of a coward,” he said.
“We will remember the courage and bravery of our fallen members and every officer that has doggedly pursued this outcome for the community.
“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.”
‘Just bear in mind that to you’s [sic] my father was a cop killer, but to me that’s still my father.’
A person identifying himself as Koah Freeman, Dezi Freeman’s eldest son
The news has been greeted with relief by rank and file officers. One veteran detective told this masthead: “I think today is a good day, the sun is shining and Victoria Police will continue to serve the public the way those fallen officers were trying to do.”
For others, his death was met with dismay.
A person who has identified himself as Koah Freeman, Freeman’s eldest son, has taken to a Bright Facebook group to denounce locals “celebrating” the death online.
“I am the eldest son of the Freeman family. And I am not here to defend my father’s actions because I know what he did was wrong,” he posted.
“I hope you all realise that I am looking at everything you’s [sic] are saying, and that you all realise how that is making me feel.”
Koah said he understood people would have thoughts “about the situation that has been happening”, but urged people to remember that Freeman had a family too.
“Just bear in mind that to you’s [sic] my father was a cop killer, but to me that’s still my father who raised me to be the man I am today. And for the people who know me well they know exactly what I’m talking about,” he wrote.
“This is news that I’ll be grieving about while some of you disgusting humans celebrate online for me to watch.”
This masthead was unable to independently verify that the account belongs to Freeman’s son.
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