A shooter, possibly with his family as hostages, flees into the thick bush of bushranger country
Three Victoria Police were caught by surprise when a killer struck them, ending the lives of two, and seriously wounding the other, before fleeing into bushranger country.
It was mid-morning on the edge of Victorian bushranger country when suspected sovereign citizen Dezi Freeman open fired on three police, killing two and seriously wounding another, plunging the nation into another tragedy linked to deniers of the rule of law.
On Tuesday night, Freeman, possibly with his wife and one or more of his children as hostages, was being tracked in bush below Mount Buffalo in northeast Victoria, with Special Operations Group tactical officers preparing to move into the area.
The 56-year-old shooter’s radical, anti-police views were no mystery when 10 armed officers turned right into one-lane Rayner’s Track at 10.30am, on to a property dominated by an alpine-style lodge with a red roof surrounded by a clearing.
Freeman is accused of opening fire as police tried to deliver him with a firearms prohibition notice.
Precise details of what happened are not known, and may not be known for days or weeks, but the incident has parallels with the 2022 Wieambilla, Queensland, shootings where two police were killed by radicalised shooters.
Killed in Queensland were police constables Matthew Arnold and Rachel McCrow and neighbour Alan Dare, before police ended the lives of the killers.
The Queensland shootings were labelled as the country’s first hardline Christian terrorist attack and had strong themes linked to the Victorian deaths.
Police have their sights on Freeman, who is heavily armed, possibly with police weapons, but his wife and two children were not seen with him when he fled his rural property into the bush near Porepunkah, about 315km northeast of Melbourne.
Freeman, as the saying goes, is well-known to police, have previously claimed to have been the victim of police misconduct and launched legal action to beat driving charges, including failing to provide a fluid sample.
He also had savaged police as corrupt “filth” and likened them to Nazis and terrorists, according to reports.
There are only four properties on Rayner’s Track but police had reason to be suspicious of potential criminal activity, with Freeman such a vigorous opponent of the law.
His history and reputed membership of the unpredictable “sovereign citizen” movement, where supporters claim not to be under the rule of law, meant police would have planned for a potential confrontation; it is highly unlikely they were expecting the volley of shots that followed.
Had police been seriously bracing for such an outcome, Special Operations Group officers from Melbourne would have been called to deliver the alleged killer the bad news of the warrant.
Instead, the SOG – known as Sons of God – were later dispatched to help clean up the mess.
Neighbours reported a series of shots and then, in the next hour, Porepunkah being flooded with grieving police trying to help colleagues and find the perpetrator.
Rayner Track is a street neither of wealth nor poverty, situated near a well-known winery and the Buckland River, which, with the Ovens River, cools Porepunkah during the summer heat.
The sought shooter is in rugged but pretty country at the foot of Mt Buffalo, not far from Porepunkah, a gateway to the Victorian Alps and the ski fields.
Victorian Police chief commissioner Mike Bush called for unity while condemning the shootings: “It is also very important we wrap ourselves around the friends, family and colleagues of these officers who so bravely gave their lives.”
Anthony Albanese said the deaths were a tragedy.
“The men and women who wear our uniform and wear the uniform of the police force, take risks each and every day,” the Prime Minister said.
The bushranger area is frequented by deer hunters and is home to the remnants of the old tobacco industry, which morphed into, in parts, the illegal production of marijuana after tobacco growing was shunned.
All over the area are old tobacco kilns and there is forest, bush and camping areas where Freeman could seek cover.
However, the looming weather forecast is not kind, with three days of up to 30mm of rain each day likely to prove challenging.
Rayner Track is only a short drive from town but there are several roads and tracks down which the killer and his family may have fled.
If he is on foot, which seems likely, the police task will be much easier; if he has managed to flee in a vehicle, his chances of having broken free into nearby Kelly Country are reasonably good.
Locals said the police air wing had been called in to survey the bush; scores of police were trying to track down the family, with the roads into the nearby tourist town of Bright having been shut down.
In the late afternoon, a police helicopter was flying near the road to Mt Buffalo, about 2km from Porepunkah, indicating police might believe the family was on foot, rather than in a vehicle.
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