On the morning of 26 August 2025, police officers Neal Thompson and Vadim De Waart-Hottart were killed in a shooting at a property near the regional Victorian town of Porepunkah, Australia, while attempting to execute a warrant. A third officer was injured. The alleged shooter, Dezi Bird Freeman, a self-proclaimed sovereign citizen known to police, fled into the dense bushland of Mount Buffalo National Park.
Deaths from gun violence, especially among police, are rare in Australia. The country has had strict laws restricting gun access since 1996, when 35 people were killed in the Port Arthur massacre.[2]
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Dezi Freeman
Desmond Christopher Filby was born in either 1968 or 1969. He attended school in the Melbourne suburb of Glen Waverley until 1977, when his family moved to the regional city of Wodonga. By 2003, Filby had adopted the name Dezi Bird Freeman; a surname popular in the sovereign citizen movement.[3][4] By profession, Freeman worked as a freelance photographer.[5] He was interested in bushcraft and had hiked in the Mount Buffalo National Park since he was 16; his son described it as his "second home."[6]
From at least 2019, Freeman actively posted content on social media that was hostile to police and authority figures, including comments that "the only good cop is a dead cop" and "[police] all need to be exterminated."[4] The same perspective was conveyed in a 2024 court appearance over the cancellation of his driver's licence, wherein he labelled police "friggin Nazis" and "terrorist thugs".[7] Freeman appeared often at the County Court in Wangaratta on a range of charges, and was known for having a hostile attitude and "baroque" defences.[8] In an interview after the shootings, Freeman's estranged nephew said Freeman "...always had this hidden anger about him".[9] In 2020, his firearms licence was cancelled.[10]
Sources contacted by The Age described Freeman's views as having become more extreme during the COVID-19 pandemic. He protested vaccines and lockdowns, and refused to wear masks,[5][11] rejecting the validity of the exercise of any state power.[8] Freeman was associated with a 2021 attempt to bring a private prosecution of treason against former Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews, which received news attention.[12] He had previously appeared in the media on an episode of A Current Affair in 2018, concerning a dispute with neighbours.[13] By 2025, he was speculating that the end times were approaching.[8]
As of August 2025, Freeman was living with his wife and two children at a property near Porepunkah,[14][6] a rural town 320km (200mi) northeast of Melbourne.[15] Freeman's oldest son, aged 20, had moved out a year earlier.[6] The site, known as Four Gully Farm, was a compound owned by a couple which housed multiple people. At least one member of the couple shared his anti-government views, and subscribed to COVID-19 conspiracy theories.[16] The Freeman's home consisted of a converted bus, a pole marquee, and shipping containers. The family regularly attended church.[8]
Shootings
Image of Freeman released by Victoria Police
Around 10:30am on 26 August 2025, ten Victoria Police officers, made up of local officers and members of the sexual offences and child abuse investigation team, attended the Four Gully Farm property to execute a warrant against Freeman.[17][15][18] A prior risk assessment had concluded that the police tactical group the Special Operations Group (SOG) would not be needed.[19] The warrant was part of a firearms prohibition order, relating to an sexual offence against a child under the age of 16 alleged to have taken place within the previous two years.[20][21][22]
After the police arrived at his bus, Freeman, inside with his wife and two-year-old child, began arguing with and insulting the officers.[23][24] Victoria Police would later describe Freeman's wife during the incident as uncooperative, and that she could be charged with obstruction.[25][26] Police attempted to pry open the door.[24] When Freeman refused to open it, Detective Leading Senior Constable Neal Thompson opened a window, and entered feet first. Soon after this, two gunshots were heard.[24] Thompson and Senior Constable Vadim De Waart-Hottart were fatally shot.[23]
The 27 minutes leading up to this were captured on video by a civilian; after the two shots were heard, the recording ends. At some point after this, a third officer was shot in the leg, and he hid under the bus for nearly an hour waiting for help to arrive.[27][28] Freeman escaped alone and on foot into the bush after collecting guns from the killed officers.[29] He was believed by police to be armed with a homemade shotgun, a rifle and a police issue handgun,[30][31] and they described his dress as including dark green tracksuit pants, a dark green rain jacket, brown boots, and reading glasses.[32]
The police SOG arrived by helicopter from Melbourne before midday.[31] Local residents were advised to stay indoors, and Porepunkah Primary School was temporarily placed under lockdown.[33]
450 personnel were deployed to the Porepunkah area to search for Freeman, to investigate the shootings and to provide community assurance.[35][36][37] These included members of Victoria Police, bolstered with assistance from interstate and federal agencies, as well as from volunteer organisations.[a] Police officers from New Zealand briefly assisted in the search. At its peak, it was the largest tactical police operation in Australian history.[34] In an interview for SBS, a former detective inspector for the Queensland Police Service stated that a typical search in a murder case may involve a team of 20 officers.[40]
Cold, snowy and windy winter weather conditions made the initial stages of the search difficult.[42][43] The shootings occurred in the foothills of Mount Buffalo,[41] a rugged, alpine region with dense bushland containing many natural caves, disused mineshafts and potential hideouts such as abandoned structures, huts and gorges, further hindering the search.[44] Locals speculated that Freeman, an experienced bushman, could survive in the region for weeks.[41]
Freeman's wife became the focus of media attention.[29] On 28 August, she was arrested with her 15-year-old son in a raid on a Porepunkah property. They were subsequently interviewed and released pending further inquiries.[36][48] Four days later, she publicly urged her husband to surrender, and offered support to Victoria Police, saying she "does not hold anti-authority views", and expressing her condolences and sorrow for the deaths of the officers.[49]
On 6 September, police announced a A$1million reward for information leading to Freeman's capture, the largest ever offered in Victoria for an arrest.[50] By 29 September they had received more than 1400 tips from members of the public.[9] Several unconfirmed sightings led to tactical operations in and around the national park.[51]
Mount Buffalo National Park is outlined in red. The location of the shootings is indicated by the blue marker.
On 12 September, 18 days after the shooting, warnings against travelling to the Porepunkah area were lifted, and residents were advised to remain vigilant.[52] As September ended, Victoria Police announced they had scaled back the search to around 200 officers,[53][35] with numbers fluctuating as needs arose elsewhere.[47] By then, police had searched over 40 square kilometres (15sqmi)[9] and hundreds of properties, both with and without the consent of owners.[47] The manhunt had extended beyond the proximate area to locations including Goomalibee, a town 100km (62mi) east of Porepunkah.[54] As of 2 October, the search continued to focus on Mount Buffalo National Park, which remained closed to the public.[55]
Throughout the manhunt, several theories of Freeman's condition were put forward. Days after the shooting, police stated they believed local community members were assisting Freeman avoid capture,[56] and set up a site in the nearby town of Bright where members of the public could leave tips.[57] They also offered Freeman a plan for his surrender, although criminology academic Liam Gillespie stated it was unlikely to be accepted due to Freeman's sovereign citizen beliefs.[58] Other theories put forward included that he had killed himself,[47] or was alive outside the Mount Buffalo area. If he was inside the area, it was speculated he may be hiding in a cave, hut, or mineshaft[29] that he may have prepared in the event of an emergency. As of 20 September, police were skeptical that he had left Victoria.[8] By early October, law enforcement was deploying cadaver dogs.[59]
On 6 October, Freeman's brother theorised that Freeman had perished days ago on a mountain near his own residence.[60]
Victims
Detective Leading Senior Constable Neal Thompson, aged 59, and Belgian-born Senior Constable Vadim De Waart-Hottart, aged 35 were fatally shot.[61]
Thompson, days away from retirement,[61] had joined Victoria Police in 1987. Across a 38-year career he worked in general duties at the Collingwood police station, as a detective based in Melbourne and in the Wangaratta Criminal Investigation Unit.[62][63] He was chosen to serve the warrant as he had previously dealt with Freeman and had established a rapport.[64] De Waart-Hottart joined Victoria Police in 2018 and had worked in general duties at the St Kilda police station before transferring to the Public Order Response Team in 2023. He was on temporary assignment in Wangaratta, and was fluent in Spanish, French and Flemish.[62][63]
The detective shot in the leg was flown to The Alfred Hospital and underwent surgery.[31] By 6 September, he was recovering at home.[50]
The funerals of De Waart-Hottart and Thompson were held on 5 and 8 September 2025. Both services took place at the Victoria Police Academy in Glen Waverley, attended by more than 1000 mourners,[65] including Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan and Chief Commissioner of Victoria Police Mike Bush.[61]
Senior political and administrative officials including Albanese, Allan and Bush reacted to the shootings, expressing sadness, praising the officers for their bravery, and condemning sovereign citizen beliefs and more broadly what they described as extreme ideological perspectives.[66][67][17] Tributes were made to De Waart-Hottart and Thompson across Victoria and Australia, including landmarks lit in blue,[68][69] a moment of silence in the federal parliament, flags flown at half-mast,[70] and floral tributes left at Wangaratta's police station.[71]
Domestic and international journalists compared the incident with the 2022 Wieambilla shootings, in which a sovereign citizen fatally shot police in a rural community.[72][73][74] As the search progressed, Australian media compared the manhunt to that of Malcolm Naden, who from 2005 remained a fugitive in New South Wales for seven years.[9][75]
Shortly after the shooting, Freeman's actions received little comment from sovereign citizens.[76] An exception came from Mike Holt, an associate of Freeman described by Crikey as "a well-known Australian pseudolegal practitioner", who defended Freeman as fearful for his life and within his rights to shoot people who came on "his property".[76] In the following days and weeks, The Age described Freeman receiving some "sympathetic" comments online,[16] and comparisons with the cultural icon Ned Kelly among "some Romantics".[77] On 1 September in Adelaide, a protestor at a March for Australia rally received media attention after he was seen holding a placard depicting Freeman. He was arrested a few days later, charged with displaying offensive material in a public place.[78][79]
Porepunkah
In the days after the shooting, media and police descended on Porepunkah.[29] Businesses struggled as the manhunt and warnings against visitation reduced visitor numbers. Tourism is the main industry of the town, particularly skiing and snow sports, and during the search the region experienced heavy snowfall that would usually bring a surge of visitors.[80]
On 15 September, the Victorian Government announced a $2.5 million support package to assist businesses in Porepunkah and the wider Alpine Shire.[81][82]The Saturday Paper characterized this as a "modest sum",[8] and weeks later businesses reported that they had not received compensation nor communication from the government.[83]
Locals interviewed by media expressed hope that Porepunkah does not become known for the shootings and instead remains a popular tourism destination.[84] By October, The Australian reported that there was strong local support for the police, although some community members in Bright and Porepunkah were "angry" with the continued conspicuous police presence in the towns.[85]
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