Here’s what we know about Freeman and his death so far.
Who was Dezi Freeman and what is he accused of doing?
Desmond “Dezi” Freeman, 56, lived in a bus on a rural property near the small town of Porepunkah on Victoria’s alpine region with his wife and two of his children. His third child moved out in 2024.
On a pseudolaw podcast in 2019, Freeman called himself a photographer from north-east Victoria. He described himself as a “sovereign citizen” with a self-confessed hatred of police, with friends telling Guardian Australia he had become increasingly radicalised over the years.
On 26 August last year, group of 10 police – made up of local officers and members of the sexual offences and child abuse investigation team – entered the property, about 210km north-east of Melbourne in rural Victoria, to serve a search warrant before allegedly being fired upon by Freeman.
Freeman fatally shot two police officers and injured another “in cold blood”. The officers killed were a 59-year-old detective, Neal Thompson, and a 35-year-old senior constable, Vadim De Waart-Hottart. Another police officer was shot and underwent surgery.
Following the alleged shooting, Freeman fled into the adjacent Mount Buffalo national park he had known for decades, heavily armed and alone. Hundreds of police officers searched for Freeman in the subsequent months.
What do we know about Dezi Freeman’s beliefs and criminal history?
He had a criminal record stretching more than 30 years, but had not been convicted of any serious offences.
Court records paint a picture of a man with a deep distrust of police and embrace of conspiracies. He once attempted to arrest a magistrate during a bizarre court hearing in Wangaratta and had refused to provide a saliva sample to police when caught speeding in September 2020.
A 2018 episode of A Current Affair featured Freeman and his family complaining about a neighbourly dispute at their then Mount Buffalo property. The report said Freeman and his family complained about their neighbour’s dirt bike stunts, loud chainsaws and verbal abuse five years before the broadcast. Freeman described the dispute as “full-out war” and said his neighbours were the “instigators” of it.
Victorian police chief commissioner, Mike Bush, said Freeman died on Monday morning after an hours-long standoff that began earlier in the morning and what he described as “the deployment of tactics” on a remote rural community, understood to be in Walwa, about 100km from Porepunkah.
He said police appealed to Freeman to come out of a building, described as a cross between a container and long caravan.
There was an opportunity for him to surrender peacefully, which he did not, Bush said.
“We strongly believe, yet to be confirmed as well, that he was armed.”
Did he receive assistance while on the run?
Bush said police were very keen to hear who – if anyone – assisted Freeman “in getting away from Porepunkah to where he was located”.
He said it would have been very difficult for Freeman to get to where he was without external help.
“We’ll be speaking to anyone who may have assisted him to avoid detection and arrest,” Bush told reporters.
In February, following a five-day search, police told reporters they were exploring three scenarios in relation to Freeman: that he died near Mount Buffalo by self-harm or misadventure; he escaped the area and was being harboured; or that he has escaped the area and has survived without help.
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