A well-known sovereign citizen is on the run after allegedly shooting dead two police officers and wounding a third in Porepunkah in Victoria’s alpine region.
Dezi Freeman allegedly fled into bushland after gunning down the two officers with a shotgun as they entered the bus where he was living on the remote property on Tuesday morning, in what a police source told the Herald Sun was a “straight-out execution”.
Up to 10 officers turned up to serve a warrant related to historical sex offences at about 10.30am when Freeman, 56, allegedly opened fire, and then stole weapons from the dead officers.
A third officer is currently undergoing surgery after being shot in the leg, while the heavily armed Special Operations Group was sent to join massive numbers of police who descended on the scene after the shooting.
Freeman’s wife and children later attended a police station, and police said “there is nothing to suggest they were ever in the company of the suspect”.
“I can confirm, tragically, that two of our fine Victoria Police officers today lost their lives in the line of duty,” Victoria Police chief commissioner Mike Bush said in a video released to the media.
“This is a terribly tragic event for the Victoria Police, the police family.
“It is also very important that we wrap ourselves around the friends, family and colleagues of these officers who so bravely gave their lives to support their communities. We have deployed all specialist resources into the area to arrest the person responsible.”
Freeman is known to police, is banned from owning firearms, and has a history of clashing with the courts, having once attempted to “arrest” a magistrate during a hearing in Wangaratta.
Header image: Left, Dezi Freeman. Right, Google Earth view of the property.
