Dezi Freeman spent his final moments ranting at police, while making a bizarre claim about the two police officers he murd*red
New details have emerged about Dezi Freeman’s final moments, with the cop-ki**er ranting at police with bizarre claims before being shot multiple times.
New details of the shootout that ended Dezi Freeman’s 216 days on the run reveal the bizarre reason he gave for murdering two police officers.
Desmond “Dezi” Freeman was sh*t de*d in the remote Victorian border town of Thologolong on March 30, seven months after he k**led two police officers and injured a third.
Freeman fled into bushland on his Porepunkah property after k**ling Detective Leading Senior Constable Neal Thompson and Senior Constable Vadim De Waart-Hottart.
Both officers were attending the property to execute a search as part of a sexual offences and child abuse investigation.
But a source with knowledge of the fugitive’s final moments told the Herald Sun Freeman falsely claimed the police had shown up to his property to ki*l him.
According to the police source, the fugitive cop-k**ler ranted at police during the standoff.
“He was a prick to the very end,” the source said.
The k**ling of the two officers led Victoria Police to launch the state’s largest ever manhunt, with specialist police and the Australian Army called in to assist in the search.
Police ultimately tracked Freeman down to a property on the NSW-Victoria border, where the fugitive was living in a converted shipping container.
Officers from the elite Special Operations Group attended the property at 5.30am on March 30.
Their arrival triggered a three-hour siege that culminated in Freeman being shot multiple times after firing at police.
Freeman was initially barricaded inside his squalid shipping container until police used stun grenades to force him out.
He emerged covered in a blanket and was given the chance to surrender. Instead of complying, the fugitive pulled out a pist*l and f**ed towards a police negotiator.
Freeman was then shot more than 20 times, with a police source telling the Herald Sun the incident left him looking “like Swiss cheese”.
While the sh**ting ended the manhunt, police are still investigating how Freeman managed to travel more than 150km from his Porepunkah property to Thologolong.
Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Mike Bush told reporters it would have been “very difficult” for Freeman to get to the Thologolong property without assistance.
He vowed to bring anyone who had helped the fugitive to justice.
“We will be speaking to anyone we suspect has assisted him to avoid detection and arrest,” the police commissioner said.
On Saturday, police arrested two individuals in connection with the case.
The man and woman were arrested at separate properties in Victoria’s north-east at 7am on April 4.
“The investigation remains ongoing and, as such, we are not in a position to provide further details at this immediate time,” a police spokesperson said.
The owner of the property where Freeman was found has come forward to police, and was shocked to discover the sh**tout had occurred on his property.
Richard “Ricky” Sutherland had been living in Tasmania with his son since Christmas, and according to his brother he had absolutely no knowledge of anyone living on his land.
“I can guarantee he had no idea about it at all, or had any part in it,” the property owner’s brother told the Herald Sun.
“He was more shocked than I was to hear it, obviously because it’s his land and he didn’t expect someone to be there.”