Australian police yesterday said that they shot a fugitive wanted for killing two police officers, ending a seven-month manhunt for one of the nation’s most-wanted criminals.
Desmond Freeman fled into dense bushland in August last year after shooting and killing two police officers who came to search his rural home in Victoria state.
Hundreds of police have pursued Freeman through the region’s rugged terrain over the past seven months, pouring resources into one of Australia’s largest manhunts.
Photo: AP
Police tracked Freeman to a caravan parked on a “very remote” property in rural Victoria, Police Commissioner Mike Bush said, adding that they shot him after he refused pleas to surrender.
“Everything I know at this point tells me that this shooting was justified,” Bush told reporters. “There was a standoff. There was an opportunity for him to surrender peacefully, which he did not.”
The state coroner would now confirm the identity of the body and cause of death, he added.
Two local residents said that Freeman had been shot at a property in Thologolong, near the border of New South Wales and Victoria states.
The property’s owner had been away for several weeks, they said.
“The place is off the grid entirely. I honestly don’t think it’s a place you just stumble across. You have to know where it is,” Thologolong resident Jasmine Teese said. “There’s no house there. The man who resides there lives in a collection of caravans, containers and old cars.”
Another local resident, cattle farmer Mike Gadd, said that it was “hard to believe” Freeman had remained undetected for so long.
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.
While fighting a speeding penalty in a Melbourne court, Freeman referred to police as “frigging Nazis,” “Gestapo” and “terrorist thugs,” according to court documents.
The 56-year-old — known as “Dezi” — escaped into a national park. Helicopters, dog squads and reinforcements from New Zealand were dispatched to help track Freeman, who reportedly possessed strong bushcraft and outdoor survival skills.
Police considered Freeman armed and dangerous. At one point involving about 450 police officers, the manhunt was one of the “most significantly resourced police operations” in Australian history, Bush said.
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