Freeman was likely given help to evade police. Accomplices risk 20 years in jail

2 hours ago 2

What happened?

Police say a man has been shot dead in their search for Dezi Freeman after seven months on the run in regional Victoria.

More than three police sources confirmed to this masthead that Dezi Freeman, who was born Desmond Filby, was shot by armed police on Monday about 8.30am.

It is believed police were negotiating with Freeman for several hours before he was killed in a shootout. No police officers were injured. There is no one else in custody.

Dezi Freeman had been on the run since August 26, 2025.

Where was Dezi Freeman found?

Police were tipped off that Freeman was believed to be hiding in a container or long caravan on a regional property after 216 days on the run.

Sources confirmed to this masthead that Freeman was gunned down near Walwa, a quiet, scenic town in north-east Victoria near the Murray River, roughly 45 minutes’ drive from Corryong.

An aerial view of the property where Dezi Freeman was shot dead by police this morning.

Officers had surveilled the property for a number of days before surrounding it early on Monday morning.

Freeman was last seen in the Mount Buffalo area more than seven months ago after the shooting deaths of Senior Constable Vadim de Waart-Hottart, 35, and Detective Leading Senior Constable Neal Thompson, 59, at a rural property in Porepunkah on August 26, 2025.

It is about a two-hour drive from Porepunkah to Walwa, near the Victoria-NSW border.

What did Dezi Freeman do?

Freeman was accused of shooting dead de Waart-Hottart and Thompson after they attempted to execute a search warrant at a vast property on the outskirts of the small township of Porepunkah on August 26, 2025.

Senior Constable Vadim De Waart-Hottart (left) and Detective Leading Senior Constable Neal Thompson.

Another detective was seriously wounded in the attack and is understood to have hidden under the bus for up to an hour until paramedics arrived.

The sudden violence instantly triggered a massive police manhunt, one that began in the dense mountain bushland and has since tracked hundreds of kilometres.

De Waart-Hottart’s parents, who live in Belgium, are currently in Melbourne after attending a ceremony last week which marked the 40th anniversary of the 1986 Russell Street bombing, in which policewoman Angela Taylor was killed.

Specialist police units conducted a number of unsuccessful searches, including with cadaver dogs, in the months since Freeman’s disappearance, but were unable to locate him.

What have the police said?

Police have confirmed they had fatally shot a man at a rural property in north-east Victoria as part of the operation to locate Freeman.

The statement did not directly name Freeman.

Family and friends at Neal Thompson’s funeral in September.

“No police officers were injured during the incident,” the statement read.

“The state coroner will attend the scene and the investigation will be oversighted by Professional Standards Command, as per standard process for a police shooting.”

Police chief commissioner Mike Bush said Victoria Police would not confirm the identity of Freeman until a thorough process of identification took place, but called the shooting “justice” at a press conference this morning.

“Everything I know at this point tells me that this shooting was justice.”

Bush said if the shot man was identified as Freeman it would bring closure and that the families of the slain officers were the first to be notified. He said it will take up to 48 hours to identify him.

The Police Association of Victoria, the union that represents police officers, said news that Freeman had been killed would be “a step forward” for members but would not ease their trauma.

The news has been greeted with relief by rank-and-file officers.

One veteran detective told The Age: “I think today is a good day, the sun is shining and Victoria Police will continue to serve the public the way those fallen officers were trying to do.”

What will happen to those who helped Freeman evade police?

The massive police operation to locate Freeman will now probe whether he was helped by other people.

Bush said it was likely he was, given he was tracked down several hours’ drive north-east of Porepunkah.

“It would be very difficult for him to get where he was, if indeed it is him, without assistance,” Bush said. “We will be speaking to anyone we suspect has assisted him to avoid detection and arrest.”

Members of the police Special Operations Group search for Freeman in a plantation at Porepunkah on September 1.

He said that those who were found to be complicit in helping Freeman escape or harbouring him would be held to account.

Criminal law specialist Melinda Walker said that in a case such as this, any charges would fall under section 325 of the state’s Crimes Act.

This includes cases where a person has committed a serious indictable offence and another person, who knows or believes them to be guilty of this “principal offence”, acts with the purpose of assisting with their escape from authorities or impeding their apprehension, prosecution, conviction or punishment.

“Where the principal offence is the most serious offence, being life imprisonment, then that person [who assists them] could be liable to a penalty of a maximum of 20 years if they are found guilty,” Walker said.

Bush said there was no one else aside from Freeman found on the property at the time of the shooting on Monday.

He said police will question the owners and others connected to the sprawling rural property near Walwa about their connections to Freeman.