Updated ,first published
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Fugitive Dezi Freeman has been shot dead by armed police on Monday morning during a shootout at a rural property near the Victoria-NSW border after more than seven months on the run.
Police were tipped off about Freeman’s location near the small township of Walwa, on the banks of the Murray River last week, according to police sources unauthorised to speak on the record. Officers had surveilled the property for a number of days before surrounding it early on Monday morning.
The Age has confirmed accused police killer Dezi Freeman was found and shot dead by police at a large rural compound in the Walwa area and satellite imagery shows the sprawling property was studded with multiple buildings, which included two shipping containers, a caravan and several disused trucks and cars.
Freeman was shot dead almost 200 kilometres north-east from Porepunkah, where he fled into the bush after allegedly shooting dead two police officers more than 200 days ago.
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. As I said, the operation was conducted by professionals from Victoria Police.”
Freeman is believed to have been hiding in one of the containers the property and emerged from hiding to shoot at officers. It followed several hours of tense negotiating between Freeman and police.
In a brief statement on Monday morning, police confirmed a man was fatally shot by police about 8.30am at a rural property in north-east Victoria as part of the operation to locate Freeman.
“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.”
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.”
Freeman was last seen in the Mount Buffalo are after the shooting deaths of Senior Constable Vadim de Waart-Hottart, 35, and Detective Leading Senior Constable Neal Thompson59, at a rural property in Porepunkah on August 26 last year.
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 bombingin 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.
“Our members said they would find him. They did,” Police Association of Victoria secretary Wayne Gatt said in a statement following news of the shooting.
Gatt said Freeman’s death did not lessen the trauma he had caused or “give back the futures that were callously stolen”, but it represented a step forward.
“Today, we won’t reflect on the loss of a coward,” he said.
“We will remember the courage and bravery of our fallen members and every officer that has doggedly pursued this outcome for the community.
“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.”
Sherry Groch is a journalist at The Age covering crime. Email her at s.groch@nine.com.au or contact her securely on Signal @SherrynG.70Connect via X or email.