{"id":18145,"date":"2026-03-30T05:48:41","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T05:48:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/australian-police-shoot-dead-fugitive-wanted-for-killing-2-officers-last-august\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T05:48:41","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T05:48:41","slug":"australian-police-shoot-dead-fugitive-wanted-for-killing-2-officers-last-august","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/australian-police-shoot-dead-fugitive-wanted-for-killing-2-officers-last-august\/","title":{"rendered":"Australian police shoot dead fugitive wanted for killing 2 officers last August"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Australian police said Monday they shot dead a fugitive gunman wanted for killing two officers, ending a seven-month manhunt for one of the country’s most-wanted criminals.<\/p>\n

Desmond Freeman fled into dense bushland in August last year after shooting and killing two police officers on a rural property in Victoria state.<\/p>\n

For the past seven months, hundreds of police have pursued Freeman through the region’s rugged terrain, pouring resources into one of Australia’s largest-ever manhunts.<\/p>\n

“A man has been fatally shot by police at a property in north east Victoria this morning as part of the operation to locate Desmond Freeman,” Victoria Police said in a statement when asked to confirm reports of Freeman’s death.<\/p>\n

Local media described Freeman as a conspiracy theorist and member of the so-called “sovereign citizen” movement, which falsely believes it is not subject to the law.<\/p>\n

He reportedly possessed strong bushcraft and outdoor survival skills, and police considered him armed and dangerous.<\/p>\n

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More than 450 police officers were dedicated to the investigation and search.<\/p>\n

“Today, we won’t reflect on the loss of a coward,” said the Police Association of Victoria. “We will remember the courage and bravery of our fallen members and every officer that has doggedly pursued this outcome for the community.”<\/p>\n

The 56-year-old — known as “Dezi” — opened fire on police as they raided his home in the small village of Porepunkah in August.<\/p>\n

He killed 59-year-old detective Neal Thompson and 35-year-old senior constable Vadim De Waart.<\/p>\n

A third officer was wounded in the lower body.<\/p>\n

While the reason for the search warrant has not been released, police said at the time the team included members of the sexual offenses and child investigation squad.<\/p>\n

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Police believed Freeman may have evaded capture with the help of sympathetic locals.<\/p>\n

They offered a Aus$1 million ($685,000) reward — the largest possible — for information that helped bring him into custody.<\/p>\n

While fighting a speeding penalty in a Melbourne court, Freeman referred to police as “frigging Nazis”, “Gestapo” and “terrorist thugs”, according to court documents.<\/p>\n

A ban on automatic and semi-automatic weapons has been in place in Australia since a 1996 mass shooting in Port Arthur, Tasmania, in which a lone gunman killed 35 people.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t© 2026 AFP<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

Australian police shoot dead fugitive wanted for killing 2 officers last August<\/sub><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Australian police said Monday they shot dead a fugitive gunman wanted for killing two officers, ending a seven-month manhunt for one of the country’s most-wanted criminals. Desmond Freeman fled into dense bushland in August last year after shooting and killing two police officers on a rural property in Victoria state. For the past seven months,…<\/p>\n

Read More “Australian police shoot dead fugitive wanted for killing 2 officers last August”<\/span> »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18146,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18145","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18145","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18145"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18145\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18146"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}