![\"Isabel](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/4798354ec8b3dcd6d68086a830301af7f32ad566fd0f19acdeda86a7b5f15020.png\")
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Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n AAA<\/p>\n In the moments before her husband shot and killed two police officers, Dezi Freeman\u2019s wife frantically called their landlord for help.<\/p>\n \u201cAndy, come down to the bus. The police are here, and they\u2019ve surrounded the bus, and they\u2019re trying to get in,\u201d Mali Freeman told him.<\/p>\n On the morning of August 26 last year, Andrew Swift ran to the makeshift home on his Porepunkah property where the Freemans had lived for nearly four years.<\/p>\n This is the first time Swift\u2019s involvement in the ordeal has been made public, with a recorded interview with the property owners posted to the Living Free Movement\u2019s<\/a> YouTube channel on Saturday detailing their version of what happened the morning Freeman opened fire.<\/p>\n Filmed in October 2025, the video shows Andrew and Bec Swift at the property, giving the channel\u2019s host a tour around the Freemans\u2019 bus, the sheds where officers took shelter, and track that Dezi Freeman disappeared along.<\/p>\n At the bus that morning, Swift was confronted by a \u201cstalemate\u201d, as uniformed and plain-clothed police officers, all wearing vests equipped with cameras, had Freeman\u2019s home surrounded.<\/p>\n After shooting dead Detective Leading Senior Constable Neal Thompson and Senior Constable Vadim de Waart-Hottart<\/a>, Freeman fled into the bush, sparking the largest manhunt in Victoria\u2019s history. On March 30, he was shot dead by heavily armed police who tracked him to a remote hideout in Thologolong<\/a>, near the NSW border.<\/p>\n Before the shooting, Swift said he had tried to help ease the tension between both parties, and told officers they were trespassing on his land \u201cunless they had a warrant\u201d.<\/p>\n Related Article \u201cPolice said they had a warrant. They showed me a bit of paper, but the whole scene \u2026 I was in no state to look at the details,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n He could hear the Freemans inside the bus \u201ctotally distressed\u201d, but despite this, \u201cDezi was really quite together, although heightened in anxiety, about asking the right questions\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cAt one point, they held the warrant up to the window, and they explained what the warrant was, and Dezi was basically saying it was not valid, a load of nonsense and \u2018what was all this really all about\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n Officers then escorted Swift away from the front of the bus, he said, and guarded him as he sat behind it. Swift had been sitting around the back \u201c10 minutes, maybe 15\u201d before the first gunshot.<\/p>\n \u201cI heard another shot, looked up and thought I got a glimpse of Dezi just ducking back away.\u201d<\/p>\n Swift didn\u2019t know what had happened, and neither did the police. He wasn\u2019t sure if it was any of the officers who had opened fire, or his tenant.<\/p>\n \u201cAt one point I yelled out, \u2018Dezi, don\u2019t be a dick. Just be calm or whatever.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n He called Mali, who answered and said she was still in the bus. Then he called Dezi Freeman to ask where he was.<\/p>\n Related Article \u201cOn one hand, he says, \u2018I\u2019m in the bus\u2019, and on the other hand, he says he\u2019s … down in the paddock below. But he definitely wasn\u2019t with Mali,\u201d Swift said. \u201cI can\u2019t remember whether I hung up or he hung up.\u201d<\/p>\n From there, he said he could not help the Freemans any longer.<\/p>\n When Swift realised officers had been injured, he helped police load an injured man into the back of his Hi-Lux to transport him down the track to a waiting ambulance. \u201cI got into the back seat, and two police officers helped the injured officer to the back seat,\u201d he said. \u201cI said to the injured officer, \u2018I\u2019m gonna grab you by your belt and your vest\u2019, and I lifted the injured officer into the back seat.\u201d<\/p>\n By the time the officer was loaded into an ambulance, Swift said, police knew they had lost two of their own.<\/p>\n Start the day with a summary of the day\u2019s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n Save<\/p>\n You have reached your maximum number of saved items.<\/p>\n![\"Dezi](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/9ab38b5aa6780c5ae8e7298f5ebd2710e941ad90b66e355196d63d76abbf8002.jpeg\")
Dezi Freeman killed two police officers when they arrived at his Porepunkah home in August last year.Marija Ercegovac<\/p>\n![\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/05146dfebe7d2554592c95749d95e073fa333a4a07a34ca7b9164bef35939e6a.gif\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Andrew](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/472872a8cbe99cbc55d06ac27c6fef5b9c89642d.jpeg\")
Andrew Swift in the Living Free Movement video that was posted on YouTube on Saturday.<\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/acf6d9f6ab5cbf785262ff249b1d6e0e1d529e16.jpeg\")
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