Australian Police Shoot Dead Fugitive Dezi Freeman After Seven-Month Manhunt

Victoria Police shot dead Dezi Freeman, also known as Desmond Filby, on Monday morning after a three-hour standoff at a remote property near Thologolong, approximately 240 miles northeast of Melbourne, ending a seven-month manhunt for the man accused of killing two police officers in August 2025. Freeman, 56, had been Australia's most wanted fugitive since the August 26, 2025, shooting in Porepunkah, where he allegedly opened fire on a team of 10 officers who had arrived to execute a search warrant. Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Mike Bush confirmed the operation and said the use of force was justified. Formal identification was pending forensic confirmation, including fingerprinting, which authorities said could take up to 48 hours. No police officers were injured in the final confrontation. Victoria Police said in a statement that a man was fatally shot at a property in northeast Victoria during an operation to locate Freeman, without initially identifying the deceased by name.

Freeman pulled firearm from under a covering, commissioner says Chief Commissioner Mike Bush described the final moments of the standoff, saying Freeman emerged from a building with something over his shoulders before producing a weapon. „He then pulled a firearm from underneath that and presented it at our people. That action took away any discretion our officers had to resolve this peacefully.” — Mike Bush via The New York Times Bush added that he was "confident" the man was Freeman but insisted on forensic confirmation before making a definitive identification. The property near Thologolong was described as an off-grid camp consisting of a circle of shipping containers and portable structures with no running water or electricity, according to The Guardian. Special Operations Group tactical officers were involved in the standoff, which began under cover of darkness in the early hours of Monday morning. Bush said police had arrived at the isolated 35-hectare property approximately 24 hours before the confrontation, acting on a tipoff reportedly received the previous week that Freeman had been sighted near Walwa, east of the property. „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.” — Mike Bush via TheJournal.ie

Two officers killed in August 2025, third wounded in the lower body The original shooting on August 26, 2025, claimed the lives of Senior Constable Vadim De Waart, 35, and Detective Neal Thompson, 59, who was reportedly just days away from retiring. A third officer was wounded in the lower body and recovered after surgery. The 10-officer team had arrived at Freeman's Porepunkah property to execute a search warrant related to alleged sexual offences and child abuse investigations. Freeman then fled into the dense bushland surrounding Mount Buffalo National Park, an area he reportedly knew intimately. Authorities had offered an 1 million (Australian dollars) — reward offered for Freeman's capture reward — described as the largest possible under Victoria Police guidelines — for information leading to his capture. As the months passed, police at one point publicly speculated that Freeman may have died in the wilderness, saying there was no proof he was still alive. „We have to follow every avenue of inquiry and there was a lot to suggest that Freeman had taken his own life.” — Mike Bush via Irish Examiner

The sovereign citizen movement, to which Freeman was linked by local media and court documents, emerged in the United States and has since spread through the internet to Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, and New Zealand. Court documents showed Freeman had referred to police as "frigging Nazis," "Gestapo," and "terrorist thugs" during a Melbourne court dispute over a speeding penalty. According to the National Police Memorial portal, the last police officer shot and killed in the line of duty in Australia before the August 2025 Porepunkah incident was in 2023 in the state of South Australia.

Police probe whether Freeman had outside help to survive seven months Chief Commissioner Bush said it would be "very difficult" for Freeman, even given his bushcraft expertise, to have travelled from Porepunkah to Thologolong without external assistance, and police launched an investigation into who may have aided him. „It is very important for us to understand how long he's been here and who else was complicit in getting him here, and then caring for him or providing him with food and other things to this point. If anyone was complicit, they will be held to account.” — Mike Bush via The Guardian Thologolong resident Jasmine Teese told AFP the property was entirely off the grid and not a place one would stumble across by chance. Police said they had yet to speak to the property's owner, who had reportedly been away for several weeks. Freeman's wife, Amalia Freeman, had previously made a public appeal for her husband to surrender, and both she and the couple's teenage son were briefly detained by investigators before being released. The Police Association of Victoria issued a statement following the shooting, saying the day would be marked by remembrance of the fallen officers rather than reflection on Freeman. „Today, we won't reflect on the loss of a coward. We will remember the courage and bravery of our fallen members and every officer that has doggedly pursued this outcome for them.” — Police Association of Victoria via TheJournal.ie

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