{"id":355970,"date":"2026-03-31T00:07:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-31T00:07:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/355970\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T00:07:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T00:07:14","slug":"dezi-freeman-holding-gun-belonging-to-slain-officer-when-he-was-killed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/355970\/","title":{"rendered":"Dezi Freeman holding gun belonging to slain officer when he was killed"},"content":{"rendered":"

A gun pulled by Dezi Freeman in his final moments belonged to one of the officers the self-proclaimed sovereign citizen executed, as authorities await formal identification of his body.<\/p>\n

Police tracked the 56-year-old to a rural property in Thologolong<\/a>, near Walwa on the Victorian-NSW border.<\/p>\n

Freeman was wrapped in what appeared to be a blanket when he emerged from a container-like structure on Monday morning following a three-hour stand-off with heavily armed officers.<\/p>\n

Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Mike Bush said he had viewed footage of Freeman pulling the gun from underneath the cloth and turning it towards police.<\/p>\n

“I can now confirm that it is a police firearm, and we believe it was taken from one of our murdered officers on the 26th of August,” he told reporters in Wodonga on Monday evening.<\/p>\n

\"Victoria<\/p>\n

Victoria fugitive Dezi Freeman (Source: Supplied)<\/p>\n

It is not known if Freeman fired the gun before multiple officers discharged their weapons<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Freeman was wanted over the fatal shootings of Neal Thompson and Vadim de Waart-Hottart, who were among a team of officers serving a warrant at his home in the small town of Porepunkah in late August.<\/p>\n

The property is about 150km from where Freeman was shot dead.<\/p>\n

Officers moved into position on Sunday but Bush would not confirm whether they received a tip-off about Freeman’s whereabouts.<\/p>\n

Police are investigating how the fugitive evaded capture for 216 days<\/a> and exploring the possibility that he received help.<\/p>\n

\"Where<\/p>\n

Where wanted fugitive Dezi Freeman was found by police (Source: Nine)<\/p>\n

“We’re very keen to learn who, if any, but I’m sure some, actually assisted him getting away from Porepunkah to where he was located,” Bush said.<\/p>\n

Bush said Freeman’s appearance was slightly altered from his last confirmed sighting, fleeing into dense bushland the day of the shooting.<\/p>\n

“His hair was a little bit longer, and he had a beard,” he said.<\/p>\n

State Coroner Liberty Sanger visited the scene on Monday to formally confirm the man’s identity.<\/p>\n

The commissioner said he expected the process to take 24 to 48 hours.<\/p>\n

“The deceased is still on site so that will take some time,” Mr Bush said.<\/p>\n

“We’re confident of who that person is.”<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The rural site where Dezi Freeman was shot dead by police Monday (Source: Nine)<\/p>\n

Premier Jacinta Allan rejoiced at police bringing the manhunt to a close, declaring an “evil man” was dead.<\/p>\n

“It is over in terms of the operation but it will never be over for those families,” she said.<\/p>\n

Police Association secretary Wayne Gatt said the memories of the fallen officers would live forever.<\/p>\n

“The memory of cowards fades quickly but with heroes it lives on forever,” he said.<\/p>\n

Hundreds of police from across Australia took part in the search for Freeman in extreme conditions, including snow and heat, and dense bushland in mountainous terrain.<\/p>\n

Investigators in December revealed they had shifted their search efforts to locating the killer’s body.<\/p>\n

Victoria Police offered an AU$1 million reward and the possibility of indemnity for information leading to his capture – the largest financial offer in the state’s history for facilitating an arrest.<\/p>\n

The morning’s headlines in 90 seconds, including police keeping a watch on fuel related crime, and how do you steal 400,000 KitKats? (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A gun pulled by Dezi Freeman in his final moments belonged to one of the officers the self-proclaimed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":355971,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[85,67,42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-355970","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-australia","9":"tag-crime-and-justice","10":"tag-headlines","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-top-news","13":"tag-top-stories","14":"tag-topnews","15":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355970","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=355970"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355970\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/355971"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=355970"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=355970"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=355970"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}