Australian fugitive Dezi Freeman has been shot dead by police after seven months on the run.
A well-known conspiracy theorist, Freeman gunned down two police officers on his property in the small Victorian town of Porepunkah last August, before fleeing into dense bushland and evading extensive searches.
Victoria Police say a man was killed after an hours-long standoff at a rural property in the state’s north-east on Monday morning. Chief Commissioner Mike Bush said the man is believed to be Freeman, but formal identification is still underway.
“Should [his identity] be confirmed… this brings closure to what was a tragic and terrible event.”
Police believe Freeman, 56, came out of a building – which Bush described as a cross between a container and a long caravan – armed and wrapped in a blanket shortly after 08:30 local time.
“Our ultimate goal was to arrest the person,” Bush said.
“There was an opportunity for him to surrender peacefully but he did not.”
No officers were hurt during the operation, police said, which will be investigated, as is standard in police shootings.
The squad sent to Freeman’s property on 26 August was there to search it amid an investigation into sex offences, when two senior constables – Neal Thompson and Vadim de Waart – were killed by Freeman.
Their families were the first to be told about Freeman’s death, Bush said, adding that it would take 24 to 48 hours to confirm the identity of the body.
Investigations will now focus on anyone who may have helped Freeman while he was on the run, Bush added.
“It would be very difficult for him to get to where he was… without assistance,” Bush said. “If anyone was complicit, they will be held accountable.”
In a statement on Monday, the Police Association of Victoria said Freeman’s death was a “step forward”.
“Closure isn’t the right word,” the statement said, adding that it “doesn’t lessen the trauma” of the two police officers’ deaths.
Freeman, whose real name was Desmond Filby, was a self-described “sovereign citizen”, part of an anti-government movement that rejects authority and laws.
Locals in Porepunkah – an alpine tourist town beneath Mount Buffalo – said he had lived on his property with his wife and two children.
After the double murder, police shut down the area, offered a A$1m (£525,000, $709,000) reward and spent months scouring steep and rocky terrain riddled with caves and mineshafts for Freeman – who had extensive bush skills.
Last month, police renewed their search and brought in cadaver dogs, saying they “strongly” believed Freeman was dead.
Bush on Monday said there was “a lot to suggest that Freeman had taken his own life”, but officers had kept an open mind. He would reveal what led police to his location.
A history of conflict with authority
Freeman was no stranger to run-ins with authority, his sovereign citizen beliefs well documented in online posts, videos and court documents.
Locals in the town of Porepunkah have told media Freeman’s extremist views hardened during the Covid-19 pandemic, amid government rules and restrictions which were particularly strict in his state of Victoria.
He called police “terrorist thugs”, tried to arrest a magistrate during court proceedings, and made headlines in 2021 with an attempt to have then-Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews tried for treason – a case which was thrown out.
Police had expected their search last August wouldn’t be a straightforward interaction. After a risk assessment, they opted not to request specialist police support though, instead sending ten officers to his property.
Among them was a local detective from a nearby town who was on the brink of retirement. Thompson was selected for the job because he’d had previous dealings with the target and was thought to have built a rapport with him, The Age newspaper reported at the time.
Within minutes of arriving at the property, he was shot dead, alongside De Waart.
Thompson’s partner – also a police officer – said the AFL fan and adventure lover was the “best husband she’d never had”. Family and friends remembered De Waart, originally from Belgium, as the kind of person who was always happy, who was always smiling and trying to make others laugh.
Their deaths revived questions about how Australia deals with growing sects of anti-government conspiracy theorists – who federal police have described as a group with an “underlying capacity to inspire violence”.
A trio with similar anti-authority and pseudo-law beliefs ambushed and killed two officers – also gunning down a bystander – at a rural property in Queensland in 2022.
Helen Haines, the local MP for Porepunkah, said a dark cloud had hung over the town since last August and Freeman’s death “draws this prolonged and devastating incident to a close”.
A close friend of Thompson also welcomed the news of Freeman’s death.
“It’s a good day,” John Bird told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, adding it ultimately “doesn’t change much” but brought some closure.
By BBC News
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