LIVE UPDATES: Dezi Freeman shot dead by Victoria Police

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10.05am

How the search for Freeman unfolded

The search for Freeman prompted one of the largest searches in Victoria Police history.

Freeman was last seen running into Mount Buffalo National Park - the shootings took place at the bus on a remote property at the base of the mountain.

Heavily armed police search a high country property on September 5.Jason South

A total of 10 officers went to the property to serve Freeman to execute a search warrant.

In the days following the shooting, Police Commissioner Mike Bush conceded that Freeman - a known survivalist - would know the terrain better than the officers searching for him.

Not long after his disappearance, police issued a $1 million reward was posted for information leading to the fugitive’s arrest.

The park remained closed for weeks as police scoured the area, returning to the area in December and February, when officers said they suspected Freeman was already dead.

Freeman proclaimed himself to be a sovereign citizen, and on February 1, we reported on how this group is causing growing delays to the justice system by using bizarre, aggressive tactics to contest minor offences without legal basis.

On March 5, it emerged the son of a policewoman had launched civil court action against the state government, after he was arrested near Shepparton and his family’s property raided by dozens of officers as part of the manhunt.

9.53am

Police Association reacts to news

“Our members said they would find him. They did.”

The Police Association of Victoria, the union which represents police officers, has reacted to the news that Dezi Freeman has been killed.

Fallen officers Vadim De Waart-Hottart (left) and Neal Thompson.

Two officers, Neal Thompson, 59, and Vadim de Waart-Hottart, 35, were shot dead and another injured while serving a warrant for historical child sex abuse to Freeman’s mobile home on a remote property near Porepunkah on August 26, 2025.

A spokesperson said: “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.

The funeral for Senior Constable Vadim De Waart-Hottart in Melbourne on September 5.AAP

“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 memorial plaque for Detective Leading Senior Constable Neal Thompson and Senior Constable Vadim De Waart-Hottart.Eddie Jim

9.44am

Timeline: Key events in the Porepunkah shooting

Weapons enthusiast Dezi Freeman had not been seen since Tuesday, August 26, when two police officers were killed in the alpine village of Porepunkah.

A massive manhunt began following the deaths of Detective Leading Senior Constable Neal Thompson, 59, and Senior Constable Vadim De Waart, 34.

The pair were killed when a home-made shotgun was discharged through the door of the bus Freeman and his family lived on.

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

9.39am

Police, wife pleaded for Freeman to give himself up

On Monday, Superintendent Brett Kahan said investigators believed Freeman was still alive and police suspected he had received help from people in the community to evade capture.

Kahan made an extraordinary plea for them to come forward, warning that anyone hiding the fugitive was committing a grave crime.

On Sunday, Freeman’s wife, Amalia Freeman, released a statement through her lawyer, urging her husband to surrender and imploring anyone harbouring him to contact the police.

Dezi Freeman and his wife, Amalia (Mali) Freeman.Marija Ercegovac

9.39am

The police officers gunned down last year

They represented two different stages of a career with Victoria Police: the seasoned detective, about to retire, and a senior constable still soaking up valuable on-the-job experience.

One was an outdoorsman who loved his hunting and fishing, and the other an ambitious city-dweller on secondment in north-east Victoria.

Detective Leading Senior Constable Neal Thompson (left) and Senior Constable Vadim de Waart.

Detective Leading Senior Constable Neal Thompson, 59, and Senior Constable Vadim de Waart, 34, were killed in the ambush near the town of Porepunkah.

Both were allegedly shot dead by conspiracy theorist Dezi Freeman, 56, at a vast rural property in the state’s alpine region while trying to execute a search warrant.

Thompson, who joined the force in September 1987 and was due to retire next month, was an avid hunter and outdoorsman who was assigned to serve the warrant because he had previously dealt with Freeman and had established a rapport.

Read more about the slain police officers here.

9.39am

Who was Dezi Freeman?

Dezi Freeman, who was born Desmond Christopher Filby, was a self-described “sovereign citizen” and after the COVID-19 pandemic developed a public profile within the radicalised anti-government community for his stunts.

His intense hatred for police is well documented in online posts, video footage and court documents. During a hearing last year when he appealed his suspended driver’s licence, Freeman told a court that “even the sight of a cop or a cop car … it’s like an Auschwitz survivor seeing a Nazi soldier”.

Dezi Freeman.

Porepunkah residents previously told this masthead that his behaviour became increasingly erratic during the coronavirus pandemic. He refused to wear face masks in shops, voiced his refusal to get vaccinated, and told people about his distaste for government restrictions and lockdowns.

During the lockdown years, Freeman appeared on podcast episodes discussing his attempt to “arrest a magistrate”, and made headlines in 2021 when he helped lead an attempted private prosecution of then-premier Daniel Andrews for treason.

In 2021, Freeman was arrested outside court in Myrtleford while protesting with fellow fringe anti-government demonstrators on the day the charges he filed against Andrews were due to be heard. The magistrate threw out the Andrews case.

Welcome

Hello, welcome to our live coverage of the shooting in Porepunkah today.

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

Dezi Freeman pictured in 2018.Nine

Dezi Freeman, who was born Desmond Filby, allegedly shot dead two policemen and wounded a third in an ambush attack at a remote farm near Porepunkah on Tuesday, August 26. That was 216 days ago.

Freeman fled into dense bushland following the alleged ambush and had not been seen since.

Detective Leading Senior Constable Neal Thompson, 59, and Senior Constable Vadim de Waart, 34, were named as the two officers who were killed.

We will bring you updates as we confirm them.

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