Australian police identify suspect in fatal shooting of officers as search enters second day

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WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Australian police on Wednesday identified a suspect who shot and killed two police officers and seriously wounded a third as the search for the shooter entered day two in a vast, remote rural area in the country's southeast.

Dezi Freeman, 56, was heavily armed and experienced in wilderness survival skills, Victoria’s Chief Commissioner of Police Mike Bush told reporters.

People were urged to stay indoors.

The shooting happened on Tuesday, when 10 armed police officers tried to execute a search warrant at Freeman's property in Porepunkah, a town of just over 1,000 people located 320 kilometers (200 miles) northeast of Melbourne.

Freeman killed a 59-year-old detective and a 35-year-old senior constable, Bush said. Another detective was shot but his wounds are not life threatening.

The officers “were met by the offender and they were murdered in cold blood,” the police chief said. The man fled alone, on foot and armed into surrounding forest where a sweeping search for him continued through the night and into Wednesday.

Bush would not elaborate on the search warrant for Freeman's property and said it was “too soon to say” if his attack on the officers was ideologically motivated. But he told reporters that attending officers included members of a unit that investigates sexual offenses and child abuse.

Australian news outlets widely reported that Freeman espoused so-called sovereign citizen beliefs, citing a 2021 video taken in Wangaratta Magistrate's Court and published online in which the he can be seen attempting unsuccessfully to arrest a magistrate and police officers while representing himself in a hearing.

Members of self-proclaimed sovereign citizen movements use debunked legal theories to reject government authority. In a 2024 finding from Victoria's Supreme Court, where Freeman tried to challenge a lengthy suspension of his drivers' license, a judge wrote the man had “a history of unpleasant encounters with police officers” whom he referred to in his submissions to the court as “Nazis” and “terrorist thugs.”

Bush would not say how much was known of Freeman's beliefs before the visit to his property.

Porepunkah, known for its vineyards and scenic vistas, is a gateway to Victoria’s alpine tourist region. Public buildings and the nearby airfield were closed on Tuesday and the local school of just over 100 students was in lockdown for hours before students were allowed to go home.

“Be vigilant, keep yourselves safe,” Bush urged residents on Wednesday. “Please don’t go outside if you don’t need to.”

Bush admitted that the suspect's knowledge of outdoor survival skills posed a “challenge” to authorities. The whereabouts of Freeman’s wife and two children were initially unknown, but they had visited a police station and spoken to officers late on Tuesday night, Bush said.

Members of the state's police union were stricken by a “shocking and eerie feeling of dread," said Police Association Victoria Secretary Wayne Gatt. “Police stations have fallen silent in Victoria when we were first notified.”

The last police officer to be shot and killed on duty in the country was in 2023, in South Australia state, according to the National Police Memorial website.

In 2022, two officers were shot and killed by Christian extremists at a rural property in Queensland state. The three shooters in that incident, conspiracy theorists who hated the police, were shot and killed by officers after a six-hour siege in the region of Wieambilla.

Shooting deaths in Australia are rare. A 1996 massacre in the Tasmanian town of Port Arthur, where a lone gunman killed 35 people, prompted the government to drastically tighten gun laws and made it much more difficult for Australians to acquire firearms.