{"id":695047,"date":"2026-05-26T05:52:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-26T05:52:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/695047\/"},"modified":"2026-05-26T05:52:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T05:52:11","slug":"victoria-police-taskforce-investigating-dezi-freeman-arrests-two-men","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/695047\/","title":{"rendered":"Victoria Police taskforce investigating Dezi Freeman arrests two men"},"content":{"rendered":"

Detectives investigating the movements of police killer Dezi Freeman have arrested two men in Victoria’s north-east.<\/p>\n

Freeman was shot dead in March after seven months on the run.<\/p>\n

In August last year, Freeman shot officers Neal Thompson and Vadim de Waart-Hottart dead when police arrived to execute a search warrant.<\/p>\n

A third officer was seriously injured in the incident after being shot in the leg.<\/p>\n

\"Composite<\/p>\n

Vadim De Waart-Hottart and Neal Thompson were shot dead by Dezi Freeman.\u00a0 (Supplied: Police Veterans Victoria)<\/p>\n

Police said they had arrested two men aged 48 and 45 at separate locations today, and confirmed they were not Freeman’s family members.<\/p>\n

“The pair will now be interviewed by police,” Victoria Police said in a statement.<\/p>\n

“The investigation remains ongoing and as such, we are not in a position to provide further details at this immediate time.”<\/p>\n

Since Freeman’s death, police have turned their attention to uncovering who helped him evade authorities and survive seven months on the run.<\/p>\n

Freeman’s final moments go under the coronial microscope<\/p>\n

Details of Freeman’s final moments on the morning of March 30, 2026 were outlined in the Coroners Court during a directions hearing on Monday.<\/a><\/p>\n

Counsel Assisting Lindsay Spence said a week before Freeman’s death, police received intelligence he was hiding out in a property at Thologolong, about an hour’s drive from Albury.<\/p>\n

Child sex allegations against Dezi Freeman revealed<\/a><\/p>\n

Fresh details into the killings of Senior Constable Vadim de Waart-Hottart and Detective Leading Senior Constable Neal Thompson have been aired in the Coroner’s Court.<\/p>\n

Freeman, who refused to participate in roadside drug tests or traffic stops, was among a loosely associated but growing movement of sovereign citizens, who do not believe Australia’s government is legitimate or that they are subject to federal, state or local laws.<\/p>\n

Despite distancing himself from government and authorities, Freeman was also a long-term welfare recipient who received regular disability pension payments.<\/p>\n

In 2021, Freeman was arrested at a protest outside the Myrtleford Magistrates’ Court where sovereign citizens failed to privately prosecute former premier Daniel Andrews.<\/p>\n

Vision from the time showed Freeman being tackled to the ground by officers before being handcuffed and escorted away through the crowd.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He was also once involved in the unsuccessful arrest of a magistrate using bogus “pseudo-law” tactics.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Detectives investigating the movements of police killer Dezi Freeman have arrested two men in Victoria’s north-east. Freeman was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":695048,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[72303,74054,43,44,266437,41,39,42,40,2024],"class_list":["post-695047","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-dezi-freeman","tag-freeman","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-taskforce-summit","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-victoria-police"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/695047","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=695047"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/695047\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/695048"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=695047"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=695047"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=695047"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}