Fugitive Dezi Freeman has been shot dead by heavily armed police in north-east Victoria after refusing to surrender, ending a seven-month manhunt.
Freeman, 56, was shot shortly after 8.30am on Monday after he was reportedly found wrapped in a blanket inside a structure near Walwa, about 188km north-east of Porepunkah, where he went missing on August 26, 2025.
Daily Mail understands police tried to negotiate with the sovereign citizen before he was killed.
Victoria Police had received a tip-off ‘from someone close to him’ before locating him.
‘A man has been fatally shot by police at a property in northeast Victoria this morning as part of the operation to locate Desmond Freeman,’ a spokesman said.
‘No police officers were injured during the incident.’
Freeman had been on the run since he fatally shot Detective Leading Senior Constable Neal Thompson, 59, and Senior Constable Vadim de Waart-Hottart, 34, and injured a third officer at Porepunkah, about 300km north-east of Melbourne, on August 26.
Victoria Police Commissioner Mike Bush said Freeman was believed to be armed when officers shot him and had been located inside a structure described as ‘a cross between a container and a very long caravan’.
‘We are examining the sequence of events and we will be able to report on that, but it did result from a stand-off, the deployment of tactics,’ he said.
‘He then exited the building. There was an opportunity for him to surrender peacefully which he did not.’
Commissioner Bush said no one else was on the property at the time of the shooting.
‘It’s a very remote community,’ he said.
‘To my knowledge, no one else was in the immediate vicinity, but there may have been people in the wider vicinity.
‘There are vehicles there. Whether he used them or not will be part of the investigation.’
There were no animals on the property.
Commissioner Bush added there were still questions to be answered about Freeman’s timeline.
‘We don’t know at what point he left the Porepunkah area and transferred to where he was found,’ he said.
Anyone living in the wider area will be spoken to by police.
Commissioner Bush said the ‘shooting was justified’.
‘The very first people to be made aware of the outcome of this operation were the families of the officers tragically killed on August 26, and all of the members that were involved on that day,’ he said.
‘There was a lot to suggest that Freeman had taken his own life. But I can tell you standing here that our investigators, that’s why they’re professionals, keep their mind open to every possible outcome and follow every possible lead.
‘What I can say – should it be confirmed that the deceased is Freeman, is this brings closure to what was a tragic and terrible event.’
Police are now working to determine how he evaded capture for so long – and whether others helped him.
‘We are very keen to learn who, if any, but I’m sure some, assisted him,’ Commissioner Bush said.
‘If anyone was complicit… they will be held to account.’
Police Association Victoria secretary Wayne Gatt said the shooting was a ‘step forward’ for the force.
‘Our members said they would find him. They did,’ Mr Gatt said on Monday.
‘Closure isn’t the right word. This represents a step forward for our members, for the families of our fallen members and for the community.
‘It doesn’t lessen the trauma, give back the futures that were callously stolen, or lessen the collective fear and grief that this tragic event has instilled in police and the wider public.’
He continued: ‘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 the community.
‘They have worked tirelessly. During the emergency, in the operation that followed and the months thereafter, members across the state have devoted themselves to this singular pursuit.
‘Days like today offer a sobering reminder that policing happens while you sleep, when the media spotlight on an investigation dims and when everything seems lost and forgotten. RIP Vadim and Neal. Today, we remember you.’
The search for Dezi Freeman
Freeman was last seen armed and fleeing into bushland near his Rayner Track property after the fatal shootings on August 26, 2025.
The shot officers were among a group of ten who had attended Freeman’s property to serve a warrant over historical sex abuse allegations.
The shootings sparked a massive manhunt, with hundreds of officers scouring bushland in and around Freeman’s remote hideout beneath Mount Buffalo.
Search crews combed steep, rocky terrain littered with caves and mineshafts but found no trace of him.
More than 100 homes and properties were searched as police investigated whether anyone was helping Freeman evade arrest.
Police also offered one of the largest rewards in Australia, promising $1million for information leading to his capture.
Early in the investigation, Freeman’s wife Mali, who police confirmed was present during the fatal shootings, and a 15-year-old boy were arrested on allegations of obstructing police, but were later released without charge.
Several days later, Mali issued a statement urging her husband to surrender.
Police in December revealed they had shifted their search efforts to locating the body of Freeman, but a five-day operation using cadaver dogs and drones yielded no results.
Who was Dezi Freeman?
Freeman subscribed to so‑called sovereign citizen ideology and was receiving Centrelink payments in the lead‑up to the fatal shooting.
Followers of the movement typically deny the legitimacy of government authority and argue that laws do not apply to them.
Freeman’s views became more extreme during the Covid pandemic, when he refused to wear masks in shops, rejected vaccinations, and became increasingly vocal in his opposition to government mandates and lockdowns.
‘He was anti everything to do with it,’ one local told the Sydney Morning Herald.
‘He went from being just a pretty ordinary country bloke… a normal dude you’d see at the local footy club all the time to quite a strange bloke. He fell down a bit of a rabbit hole and sort of disappeared and went off the radar.’
Freeman spent years in and out of court, mostly contesting driving offences, often arguing the laws did not apply to him because of his sovereign citizen beliefs.
In 2021, he was linked to an effort to have then‑Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews charged with treason.
Footage captured Freeman during a November 2024 court appearance in Wangaratta attempting to ‘arrest’ a magistrate and police officers during a dispute over access to a national park.
He also called called police ‘frigging Nazis’, ‘Gestapo’ and ‘terrorist thugs’ and relentlessly targeted a female officer because she pulled him over for speeding.
Freeman lived in the Porepunkah area for years with his wife Mali and their children, and the family was known locally.
Mali had worked in a supermarket and also taught music to children in the community.
Neighbour Zar Saccutelli told Daily Mail he had long feared Freeman would turn violent, claiming he once threatened to kill his teenage son if he didn’t stop riding his motorbike.
‘I said to my sister, ‘This guy is a nutcase. He is going to kill someone one day… he’ll shoot someone’,’ he revealed.
Saccutelli said that despite publicly attacking police, Freeman repeatedly called them over minor neighbourhood issues, including early-morning construction noise and small disputes.
