Fugitive Killed by Police After Seven-Month Escape
The Death of a Notorious Fugitive
An Australian fugitive, known for his extreme views and involvement in a deadly attack on law enforcement, has been killed following a seven-month manhunt. Desmond “Dezi” Freeman, 56, was shot dead by police during a confrontation at a rural property in Thologolong, located in the north-east of Victoria state. The incident occurred shortly after 8:30 am local time on Monday.
Freeman, a paranoid conspiracy theorist and self-proclaimed member of the “sovereign citizen” movement, which believes it is not subject to the law, had wilderness survival skills and was considered highly dangerous. He had been living inside a shipping container and refused appeals to surrender.
Heavily armed special operations group tactical police were involved in a standoff for three hours before the suspect was shot dead. Freeman had previously taken part in anti-lockdown protests and was well known to authorities for his extremist views. While contesting a speeding penalty in a Melbourne court, he referred to police as “frigging Nazis,” “Gestapo,” and “terrorist thugs.” In 2019, he tried to place a magistrate under a citizen’s arrest during a dispute over public access to a national park.
The pandemic appeared to tip him over the edge into paranoia and adherence to the “sovereign citizen” movement. One acquaintance described him as going from being an ordinary country bloke to quite a strange one. Born Desmond Filby, Freeman was the subject of what detectives described as the “most considerable investment of police resources” in the state’s history and one of the biggest manhunts ever launched in Australia.
There had been no confirmed sightings of Freeman since he opened fire on police officers who came to serve a warrant at his home near the town of Porepunkah, north-east of Melbourne, on August 26 last year. The shooting of three police officers led to a large search across Victoria’s heavily forested alpine region. In recent months, police said they suspected Freeman had killed himself. This turned out not to be the case.
Police finally caught up with the fugitive at a remote location near Thologolong, around two hours’ drive north of Porepunkah. The chief commissioner said that a weapon found next to Freeman’s body was a police service revolver, taken from one of the officers he murdered last August. “Everything I know at this point tells me that this shooting was justified. There was a standoff. There was an opportunity for him to surrender peacefully, which he did not,” said Mr Bush.
The site of the fatal confrontation is about 85 miles from the location where the original ambush took place in August, after which Freeman vanished into the Victorian Alps. Police tracked him down to the remote property, littered with disused trucks. Aerial footage showed a police specialist vehicle using a hydraulic tool to puncture the side of the metal shipping container.
Mr Bush said the operation began at 5:30 am on Monday, with the stand-off happening around three hours later. The rural property is owned by 70-year-old Richard Sutherland, described by locals as “a bit alternative” and someone who enjoyed living “off-grid.” Family members confirmed that Mr Sutherland had been staying with relatives in Tasmania for several months and was not present when the fugitive allegedly began using the property.
The Impact of the Attack
On August 26 last year, a 10-man police team descended on a remote 20-hectare property near Porepunkah, 180 miles north-east of Melbourne. The officers had arrived to serve a search warrant linked to historic sex abuse allegations when they were met by an “execution-style” ambush. Detective leading senior constable Neal Thompson, 59, who was weeks away from retirement, and Belgian-born senior constable Vadim de Waart, 34, were killed in the minutes-long burst of gunfire. A third officer was shot in the leg but survived.
Helicopters, dog squads, and reinforcements from New Zealand were dispatched to help track Freeman. At one point, the manhunt involved around 450 officers. The families of the dead officers were the first to be notified of the suspect’s death on Monday morning.
Investigators said they were still working to establish a timeline of Freeman’s movements. At the time of the police killings, Mr Bush described them as a “straight-out execution” and warned that Freeman, who had been living in an old bus on the property, had stolen weapons from the officers before disappearing on foot. In September, Victoria police announced an A$1m (£515,000) reward, the largest ever offered in the state for an arrest.
Freeman managed to evade capture for 216 days by fleeing into the dense, rugged bushland of the Mount Buffalo National Park. The ambush last year drew comparisons to a deadly 2022 incident in Queensland, when two young officers were lured to a remote farm and killed by three radicalised “sovereign citizens.” The suspects were later shot and killed by police after an hours-long standoff.
In Australia, a country with some of the world’s strictest gun-control laws, such targeted attacks on law enforcement officers remain exceedingly rare.
Wayne Gatt, secretary of the Police Association of Victoria, issued a stern warning to potential accomplices: “Our members will chase every rabbit down every burrow.” He paid tribute to the two officers who were killed last year, saying: “The memory of cowards fades quickly. With heroes, it’s good that this individual is no longer a threat to the Victorian community.”
Jacinta Allan, the premier of Victoria state, said: “Today, an evil man is dead and it’s over, and it’s good that this individual is no longer a threat to the Victorian community.” A local woman, Jasmine Teese, said she thought police had probably received a tip-off about the location. “The place is off the grid entirely. I honestly don’t think it’s a place you just stumble across. You have to know where it is,” she said. “There’s no house there. The man who resides there lives in a collection of caravans, containers and old cars.”
Mr Bush said formal identification of the body was expected to take place within 24 to 48 hours.
Police tracked him down to the remote property, littered with disused trucks. Aerial footage showed a police specialist vehicle using a hydraulic tool to puncture the side of the metal shipping container. Mr Bush said the operation began at 5:30 am on Monday, with the stand-off happening around three hours later.
