{"id":1854955,"date":"2026-03-30T03:22:41","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T00:22:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1854955"},"modified":"2026-03-30T03:22:41","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T00:22:41","slug":"australia-police-kill-fugitive-wanted-for-killing-2-officers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1854955","title":{"rendered":"Australia police kill fugitive wanted for killing 2 officers"},"content":{"rendered":"

[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/static.dw.com\/image\/76587279_6.jpg”]<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n
https:\/\/p.dw.com\/p\/5BLqF<\/span><\/div>\n<\/section>\n
More than 450 police officers had been involved in the hunting for Freeman \u200bsince August [FILE: August 29, 2025]Image: William West\/AFP<\/small><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\n

A man believed to have gunned down two police officers in a remote town in Australia’s<\/a> Victoria state was shot dead by police on Monday.<\/p>\n

Victorian Chief Commissioner of Police Mike Bush said\u00a0“there was an opportunity for him to surrender peacefully, which he did not.”<\/p>\n

While the man is yet to be formally identified, police believe him to be 56-year-old Desmonn\u00a0Freeman, \u00a0known as “Dezi,” who had been on the run for seven months.<\/p>\n

He was fatally shot following a three-hour standoff at a rural property in the Walwa area of Victoria.<\/p>\n

Investigation into sex offenses<\/h2>\n

Freeman had been on the run since August last year when he allegedly shot dead two police officers and wounded another.<\/p>\n

Detective Neal Thompson and Senior Constable Vadim De Waart were killed as they raided Freeman’s property in Porepunkah, about 300 km (186 miles) northeast of Melbourne.<\/p>\n

Police did not reveal the reason for the raid on Freeman’s property in August but said officers were executing a search warrant as part of an investigation by the Wangaratta Sexual Offences and Child Abuse Investigation Team.<\/p>\n

Manhunt for Freeman<\/h2>\n

The search for Freeman at one point involved\u00a0around 450 police officers and was one of the “most significantly resourced police operations” in Australian history, Bush said.<\/p>\n

They believed Freeman may have evaded capture for months with the help of sympathetic locals.<\/p>\n

On Monday,\u00a0police tracked Freeman to a caravan parked on a “very remote” property in rural Victoria, Commissioner Bush said.<\/p>\n

Authorities said\u00a0Freeman was shot after\u00a0he refused pleas to surrender.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Local media have described him as a conspiracy theorist and member of the so-called “sovereign citizen” movement that regards the government as illegitimate.<\/p>\n

“Today, we won’t reflect on the loss of a coward,” said the Police Association of Victoria. “We will remember the courage and bravery of our fallen members and every officer that has doggedly pursued this outcome for the community.”<\/p>\n

Edited by:\u00a0Darko Janjevic<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n

\n

A man believed to have gunned down two police officers in a remote town in Australia’s<\/a> Victoria state was shot dead by police on Monday.<\/p>\n

Victorian Chief Commissioner of Police Mike Bush said\u00a0“there was an opportunity for him to surrender peacefully, which he did not.”<\/p>\n

While the man is yet to be formally identified, police believe him to be 56-year-old Desmonn\u00a0Freeman, \u00a0known as “Dezi,” who had been on the run for seven months.<\/p>\n

He was fatally shot following a three-hour standoff at a rural property in the Walwa area of Victoria.<\/p>\n

Investigation into sex offenses<\/h2>\n

Freeman had been on the run since August last year when he allegedly shot dead two police officers and wounded another.<\/p>\n

Detective Neal Thompson and Senior Constable Vadim De Waart were killed as they raided Freeman’s property in Porepunkah, about 300 km (186 miles) northeast of Melbourne.<\/p>\n

Police did not reveal the reason for the raid on Freeman’s property in August but said officers were executing a search warrant as part of an investigation by the Wangaratta Sexual Offences and Child Abuse Investigation Team.<\/p>\n

Manhunt for Freeman<\/h2>\n

The search for Freeman at one point involved\u00a0around 450 police officers and was one of the “most significantly resourced police operations” in Australian history, Bush said.<\/p>\n

They believed Freeman may have evaded capture for months with the help of sympathetic locals.<\/p>\n

On Monday,\u00a0police tracked Freeman to a caravan parked on a “very remote” property in rural Victoria, Commissioner Bush said.<\/p>\n

Authorities said\u00a0Freeman was shot after\u00a0he refused pleas to surrender.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Local media have described him as a conspiracy theorist and member of the so-called “sovereign citizen” movement that regards the government as illegitimate.<\/p>\n

“Today, we won’t reflect on the loss of a coward,” said the Police Association of Victoria. “We will remember the courage and bravery of our fallen members and every officer that has doggedly pursued this outcome for the community.”<\/p>\n

Edited by:\u00a0Darko Janjevic<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

A man believed to have gunned down two police officers in a remote town in Australia’s<\/a> Victoria state was shot dead by police on Monday.<\/p>\n

Victorian Chief Commissioner of Police Mike Bush said\u00a0“there was an opportunity for him to surrender peacefully, which he did not.”<\/p>\n

While the man is yet to be formally identified, police believe him to be 56-year-old Desmonn\u00a0Freeman, \u00a0known as “Dezi,” who had been on the run for seven months.<\/p>\n

He was fatally shot following a three-hour standoff at a rural property in the Walwa area of Victoria.<\/p>\n

Freeman had been on the run since August last year when he allegedly shot dead two police officers and wounded another.<\/p>\n

Detective Neal Thompson and Senior Constable Vadim De Waart were killed as they raided Freeman’s property in Porepunkah, about 300 km (186 miles) northeast of Melbourne.<\/p>\n

Police did not reveal the reason for the raid on Freeman’s property in August but said officers were executing a search warrant as part of an investigation by the Wangaratta Sexual Offences and Child Abuse Investigation Team.<\/p>\n

The search for Freeman at one point involved\u00a0around 450 police officers and was one of the “most significantly resourced police operations” in Australian history, Bush said.<\/p>\n

They believed Freeman may have evaded capture for months with the help of sympathetic locals.<\/p>\n

On Monday,\u00a0police tracked Freeman to a caravan parked on a “very remote” property in rural Victoria, Commissioner Bush said.<\/p>\n

Authorities said\u00a0Freeman was shot after\u00a0he refused pleas to surrender.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Local media have described him as a conspiracy theorist and member of the so-called “sovereign citizen” movement that regards the government as illegitimate.<\/p>\n

“Today, we won’t reflect on the loss of a coward,” said the Police Association of Victoria. “We will remember the courage and bravery of our fallen members and every officer that has doggedly pursued this outcome for the community.”<\/p>\n

Edited by:\u00a0Darko Janjevic<\/em><\/p>\n

[analyse_source url=”https:\/\/www.dw.com\/en\/australia-police-shoot-dead-man-wanted-for-killing-2-officers\/a-76587251″]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/static.dw.com\/image\/76587279_6.jpg”] https:\/\/p.dw.com\/p\/5BLqF More than 450 police officers had been involved in the hunting for Freeman \u200bsince August [FILE: August 29, 2025]Image: William West\/AFP A man believed to have gunned down two police officers in a remote town in Australia’s Victoria state was shot dead by police on Monday. Victorian Chief Commissioner of Police […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[226,74],"class_list":["post-1854955","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-crawlmanager","tag-dw-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1854955","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1854955"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1854955\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1854955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1854955"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1854955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}