Australian police confirmed that fugitive Dezi Freeman, 56, was killed after a seven-month manhunt in rural Victoria.
He was wanted for the shooting deaths of two officers at Porepunkah. Freeman refused to surrender peacefully during the operation at a northeast Victoria property, according to the police.
Freeman allegedly shot and killed two police officers when they went with a search warrant as part of a child sex abuse investigation, on his property in the small Victorian town of Porepunkah, and fleeing into dense bushland later, sparking a massive seven-month hunt.
A man, believed to be Freeman, was shot dead after an hours-long armed standoff at a rural northeast Victoria property shortly after 8:30 a.m. local time Monday, with formal ID pending, reported BBC, citing Chief Police Commissioner Mike Bush.
Freeman had “an opportunity to surrender peacefully” but refused. Police will now probe anyone who aided him on the run. No officers were injured in the shooting, according to the BBC.
The Police Association of Victoria called Freeman’s death a “step forward” in a post-shooting statement on Monday, as per reports.
A mandatory probe into the police shooting is underway.
Freeman, whose real name was Desmond Filby, was tied to an anti-government group that defies laws and authority.
Following the alleged murders of two officers, police locked down the area, enlisting international and specialist teams in an exhaustive hunt for Freeman.
After nearly two weeks of fruitless searches, they posted a $1 million reward for a tip.
Despite his reputed bush survival expertise, Freeman evaded capture. He was on a run for the last seven months.
Freeman was a self-proclaimed ‘sovereign citizen’ with authority hatred shone through in online posts, videos, and court files, labeling police “terrorist thugs,” likening them to Nazis, and even attempting a citizen’s arrest on a magistrate, as per BBC report.
In 2021, Freeman grabbed headlines trying to charge then-Premier Daniel Andrews with treason, a bid swiftly dismissed.
Police anticipated no easy encounter last August; a risk assessment led them to send 10 officers to his property without specialist backup.
Australia has been grappling with escalating sects of anti-authority conspiracy theorists embracing pseudo-legal ideologies.
In 2022, a trio sharing such beliefs ambushed and killed two officers, plus a bystander, at a rural Queensland property.
Post COVID-19, Australian authorities have flagged the surge in these threats.
