How police cornered fugitive killer Dezi Freeman in a rural siege. Dezi Freeman’s son has lashed out at ‘disgusting humans’ for celebrating his killer dad’s death, as the family faces a two-day wait for proof from the coroner.
Dezi Freeman’s family will have to wait up to two days for official confirmation of his death as disturbing details emerge about the fugitive cop killer’s final moments alive.
Freeman’s death, yet to be officially confirmed by Victoria Police, followed a three-hour seige at a property near the NSW border after officers were tipped off about his location.
The Herald Sun reports Special Operations Group officers had lay in wait overnight before a confrontation took place after flash bang grenades were deployed on Monday morning.
Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Mike Bush said there had been an “appeal to encourage the person to come out” before the man, believed to be Freeman, was killed.
“It did result from a standoff, the deployment of tactics,” he said.
“He then exited the building. There was an opportunity for him to surrender peacefully, which he did not.”
No arrests have been made as the long-running investigation now pivots to who and how Freeman may have been assisted in evading police for seven months.
Chief Commissioner Bush would not confirm the deceased man’s identity during a press conference on Monday, and revealed Freeman’s family had to wait for the coroner to provide a definitive ruling.
“We’ve said the same thing to the family that we’re saying to you; that we believe it is Freeman,” he said.
“But we have to go to through a formal identification process.”
Despite Freeman’s death being widely reported, he explained that “fingerprints and other formal identification means” were still outstanding.
“So whilst there’s informal (identification), for us to be 100 per cent confident, we have to go through formal (processes),” he said.
Freeman’s eldest son Koah, 20, took to social media to slam those celebrating his father’s death.
“I am not here to defend my father’s actions because I know what he did was wrong,’ he wrote on Facebook.
“Just bear in mind that to you’s my father was a cop killer, but to me that’s still my father who raised me to be the man I am today. And for the people who know me well they know exactly what I’m talking about.
“This is news that I’ll be grieving about while some of you disgusting humans celebrate online for me to watch.”
It was revealed earlier in March that Ms Freeman, known as Mali, would not be prosecuted after a review of a police briefs of evidence found there was insufficient cause to lay any charges.
“These briefs were subsequently not authorised due to there being insufficient evidence to support a prosecution at this time,” a Victoria Police spokesperson said.
“Those briefs were independently reviewed, and the same outcome was reached.”
Chief Commissioner Bush was asked if police would speak to Freeman’s family again as the investigation turned to how he was able to avoid authorities for so long.
“The answer to that is we’ll be speaking to anyone we suspect may have assisted him, to avoid detection and arrest,” he said.
News.com.au makes no suggestion Ms Freeman or her children assisted her husband in any way.
Friends told news outlets last year that Ms Freeman was the “silent victim” in the horrific incident, sharing how she had tried to calm down her increasingly erratic husband.
Freeman was known for holding anti-authority, sovereign citizen ideologies but his wife did not share those beliefs, according those close to her.
“She never says a bad word about anyone,’’ Leanne Boyd, a Bright businesswoman, told The Australian in December.
“She is a great mum, honestly. She is a good person.’’
That same month another friend revealed Ms Freeman was a “broken woman living in fear” and was largely not seen in public.
“She has no idea if her husband, the father of her children, is dead or alive,” they told the Daily Mail.
Days after the shooting the mother-of-three days urged her husband or anyone helping him to surrender, expressing “deep sorrow” for the deaths of the two officers.
“We are truly sorry for your loss, and the suffering and grief that the families, friends and colleagues of Detective Leading Senior Constable Thompson and Senior Constable De Waart are now experiencing,” she said in a statement via her lawyer.
“My children and I grieve for the loss of your loved ones.
“Please Dezi, if you see or hear this, call triple-0 and arrange a surrender plan with the police.”
Forensic psychologist Tim Watson-Munro said on Monday, after news of Dezi Freeman’s death, that the gunman believed he was “above the law”.
“They (sovereign citizens) think that they create their own laws,” he said.
“So for him to commit the murders that he did to evade detection, he would think it’s his sovereign right not to be caught and not to be held accountable.”