Two police officers were killed and another seriously wounded in a shooting Tuesday at a property in a rural part of Australia. The gunman remained at large as police scoured a vast remote area.
The shooting occurred in midmorning when 10 armed police officers tried to execute a search warrant at a property in Porepunkah, a town of just over 1,000 people in Victoria state 200 miles northeast of Melbourne.
The suspect killed a 59-year-old detective and a 35-year-old senior constable, Victoria's Chief Commissioner of Police Mike Bush told reporters at a news conference in the nearby city of Wangaratta.
The officers "were met by the offender and they were murdered in cold blood," Bush said. The man fled alone, on foot and heavily armed into surrounding forest where hundreds of officers were still searching for him, the police chief said.
Bush would not divulge what the warrant related to and wouldn't confirm the man's name or believed motivations. Officers were also seeking the man's wife and two children, whose whereabouts were unknown.
Another detective was shot and was undergoing surgery Tuesday night, Bush said. The man's injuries were not life threatening.
Australian media, including The Age newspaper, said the suspect was 56-year-old Dezi Freeman, describing him as a radicalized conspiracy theorist who had expressed hatred for the police. Freeman was a self-professed "sovereign citizen," the paper said, referring to a movement that falsely believes it is not subject to laws passed by the government.
During a 2024 hearing to appeal his suspended driver's license, Freeman told a court that "even the sight of a cop or a cop car … it's like an Auschwitz survivor seeing a Nazi soldier," the Sydney Morning Herald reported.
"We urge the public in and around the township of Porepunkah to remain indoors until further notice," police said in a statement.
Public buildings and the nearby airfield were closed. The local school of just over 100 students was in lockdown for hours before students were allowed to go home.
"Eerie feeling of dread"
As darkness fell, the massive manhunt continued. Television reports showed helicopters and police dogs in the area.
Porepunkah, known for its vineyards and scenic vistas, is a gateway to Victoria's alpine tourist region.
Members of Victoria's police union were stricken by a "shocking and eerie feeling of dread," said Police Association Victoria Secretary Wayne Gatt. "Police stations have fallen silent in Victoria when we were first notified."
Alpine Shire Mayor Sarah Nicholas said it had been a day of "deep sorrow and shock" for the community.
"We are grieving together, and we will continue to support one another with compassion and care," she said in a video message on social media, her voice breaking with emotion.
The last police officer to be shot and killed on duty in the country was in 2023 in South Australia state, according to the National Police Memorial website. In 2022, two officers were shot dead by Christian extremists at a rural property in Queensland state.
The three shooters, conspiracy theorists who hated the police, were shot and killed by officers after a six-hour siege in the region of Wieambilla.
Such episodes prompt national news coverage because shooting deaths in Australia are rare.
A 1996 massacre in the Tasmanian town of Port Arthur, where a lone gunman killed 35 people, prompted the government to drastically tighten gun laws and made it much more difficult for Australians to acquire firearms.
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