Dezi Bird Freeman, the 56-year-old suspected gunman in the Porepunkah shooting, is at the centre of Victoria’s largest manhunt.
The 56-year-old self-described “sovereign citizen” is accused of killing two police officers in the Alpine region at a rural Porepunkah property on Tuesday morning. A team of 10 police officers, including members of the sexual offences and child investigation team, arrived at a property in Porepunkah, about 300km (186 miles) northeast of the city of Melbourne, to execute a search warrant.
Freeman is alleged to have fired on the group, killing two officers and injuring another before fleeing on foot into dense bushland, police said. Police named the two slain officers as Neal Thompson and Vadim de Waart.
“Sovereign citizens” are a part of a movement known for promoting conspiracy theories and hostility toward law enforcement.
Authorities say Freeman fled into the surrounding bushland on Tuesday morning armed with stolen police weapons, warning he remains heavily armed and “very dangerous”.
He is still “at large”, prompting the police to impose a no-fly zone over Porepunkah as the search intensified.
Authorities also urged residents to stay inside and limit travel for their safety.
According to local media reports, Freeman was born Desmond Christopher Filby and later renamed himself “Dezi Freeman” – a symbolic gesture of his belief in personal sovereignty.
He lived with his wife Mali and their two children on a bus on a 20-hectare block outside Porepunkah. Locals say the property resembled a compound, with buses, gates, and security cameras.
The Freemans once presented themselves as ordinary residents. In 2018, they even featured on a TV show titled “A Current Affair”, complaining about noisy neighbours. “Mali and her family are all very kind, very beautiful people,” a neighbour said at the time.
On Tuesday, a neighbouring family told the Daily Mail that the Freemans had put them “through hell”. The “sovereign citizen” movement, built on the belief that people can place themselves outside government authority, gained momentum during the pandemic. Police had long viewed it as a security risk. A 2023 Australian Federal Police note described the movement as having “an underlying capacity to inspire violence”.
It was during the Covid-19 pandemic that the locals started noticing dramatic changes in Freeman when his ideology on “sovereign” citizenship solidified. During the pandemic, he reportedly rejected masks, vaccines, and restrictions.
“He was anti everything to do with it,” one local was quoted as saying by The Sydney Morning Herald.
“He went from being just a pretty ordinary country bloke… a normal dude you’d see at the local footy club all the time to quite a strange bloke. He fell down a bit of a rabbit hole and sort of disappeared and went off the radar.”
Freeman’s posts on social media grew darker, warning: “Hell awaits those traitor maggots. There is no escape. The clock is ticking!”
Victoria police chief commissioner Mike Bush said of Freeman: “He will know that area better than us so that is why we are putting in every expert, supported by local knowledge.”
“Our understanding is that he understands bushcraft well which provides a challenge to us.”
Neighbours also vouch that Freeman is an adept outdoorsman. “He’s well-versed in the bush and there’s caves up there, so it’ll be a while before they find him, I think,” one told the ABC.
The Daily Mail reported that Freeman might be tracking the movement of the police using a stolen radio from one of the dead officers.
Freeman’s rejection of authority often played out in Victoria’s courts, where he faced a string of driving charges. He allegedly insulted judges and lashed out at officers.
He repeatedly called officers “frigging Nazis”, “Gestapo”, and “terrorist thugs”.
In one moment, he tried to arrest a magistrate, declaring: “You must stand down, and are now in my custody and under arrest. You are not free to leave.”
He also joined a failed attempt to privately prosecute then-premier Daniel Andrews for treason in 2021. Outside the court, cameras captured him railing against “terrorist criminal filth” as sheriffs dragged him away.
“They’re gonna make some [expletive] up about me mate, because I stood up to them,” he told supporters.
According to The Guardian, speaking on a pseudolaw podcast in 2019, Freeman introduced himself as a photographer from north-east Victoria and recounted a dispute with “newcomers from Melbourne” who, he claimed, had shut a road “that’s been used for 120 years”.
Freeman recounted a day in court where he told the magistrate he had “no rightful authority” and attempted to order police to arrest him.
“The police officers were informed that it’s their duty to make the arrest, which they refused to do. No surprises there,” he said.
“The law is the law. No one is above it. I don’t care if it’s the Queen or the Pope or ‘Scumo’ or whoever it is.”
Last year, Freeman challenged the Supreme Court after his driver’s licence was cancelled and he was disqualified for two years over convictions for speeding, refusing a drug test, and using a mobile phone while driving.
He claimed he and his family were victims of “malicious prosecution” and a “personal vendetta” after being stopped outside a fish and chip shop, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported.
The incident escalated when he drove off without completing a drug test, filming the officers involved.
“I had my firearms licences cancelled and lost my club membership,” he told the Supreme Court, which ultimately struck down the challenge.
“We endured four acts of criminal trespass and harassment on our home by police and I have been dragged through four years of court hearings.”
Victoria Police reportedly refused to comment on whether Freeman had his gun licence cancelled.
More court records show that Freeman was a man who believed that he was wronged by the police.
“Disability pensioner Dezi Freeman takes his kids fishing down a quiet country road and suffers years of malicious damaging persecution by an increasing number of state employees who hid behind the colour of the law,” Freeman told the court, according to ABC.
“They knock us down and then keep kicking us when we’re down. In other words, they look for the splinter in my eye while tripping over the logs in theirs.”
Prime minister Anthony Albanese and Victoria premier Jacinta Allan praised the officers’ bravery, while the Australian Federal Police Association offered condolences to the victims’ families and colleagues.
“It’s a way, a very physical way, that we can say to the men and women of Victoria Police we stand with you, we support you, we care for you, we love you,” Ms Allan said.
“Particularly in this time of grief, and particularly to the broader Victorian community, now is the time for unity. Now is the time to join together and show support not just for the Victoria Police, to those emergency services, but to each other.”
Mr Albanese said the threat of “sovereign citizens” and extremist ideologies must be taken seriously.
“We saw a tragic loss of life in Queensland as well previously, and I attended the funeral service – which was so sad – of the officers there,” Albanese said on ABC 7.30.
The search for Freeman continues in Victoria’s high country.
