{"id":372875,"date":"2026-03-30T11:29:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T11:29:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/372875\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T11:29:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T11:29:09","slug":"australian-police-killings-suspect-shot-dead-after-three-hour-stand-off","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/372875\/","title":{"rendered":"Australian police killings suspect shot dead after three-hour stand-off"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Australian police believe they have shot dead a suspect accused of killing two police officers and seriously wounding a third in a remote forest region seven months ago.<\/p>\n<p>There had been no confirmed sightings of Dezi Freeman, 56, since he allegedly opened fire on police officers who came to serve a warrant at his home near Porepunkah in Victoria state north-east of Melbourne on August 26 last year, Victoria\u2019s chief commissioner of police Mike Bush said on Monday.<\/p>\n<p>A man believed to be Freeman was fatally shot by police on Monday at a remote location near Thologolong, around two hours\u2019 drive north of Porepunkah, a police statement said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe believe it is Freeman, but we have to go through a formal identification process,\u201d Mr Bush told reporters in Melbourne.<\/p>\n<p>Identification could take up to 48 hours through processes including fingerprinting.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" height=\"427\" width=\"640\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/australian-police-killings-suspect-shot-dead-after-three-hour-stand-off.jpg\" alt=\"Police vehicles parked at the scene of the shooting\" data-title=\"Australia Police Shooting\" data-copyright-holder=\"AP\" data-copyright-notice=\"AAP Image\" data-credit=\"James Ross\" data-usage-terms=\"This content is intended for editorial use only. For other uses, additional clearances may be required. No Use in Australia\"\/>Freeman is alleged to have killed two police officers in the state of Victoria, Australia (James Ross\/AAP Image via AP)\n<\/p>\n<p>Heavily armed Special Operations Group tactical police were involved in a stand-off for three hours before the suspect was shot. He had been inside a shipping container-type structure.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis was all about bringing this to a conclusion as safely as possible. Our ultimate goal was to arrest the person there \u2026 as peacefully as possible,\u201d Mr Bush said.<\/p>\n<p>The police chief added he \u201cstrongly believed\u201d the suspect was armed. Mr Bush could not say whether the suspect fired at police.<\/p>\n<p>Australian news outlets widely reported that Freeman espoused co-called sovereign citizen beliefs and had grievances with police.<\/p>\n<p>He had wilderness survival skills that police feared could sustain him living in the open indefinitely.<\/p>\n<p>The shooting of three police officers led to a massive search across Victoria\u2019s heavily forested alpine region. In recent months, police said they suspected Freeman had killed himself.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have to follow every avenue of inquiry and there was a lot to suggest that Freeman had taken his own life,\u201d Mr Bush said.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Bush would not say whether a tip-off led police to the suspect on Monday. Police had offered a one million Australian dollar (\u00a3517,000) reward for information.<\/p>\n<p>Officers are investigating whether others had helped the suspect avoid arrest.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australian police believe they have shot dead a suspect accused of killing two police officers and seriously wounding&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":372876,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-372875","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372875","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=372875"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372875\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/372876"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=372875"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=372875"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=372875"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}