POREPUNKAH: Police searched the Australian bush on Wednesday for a heavily armed 56-year-old gunman still on the run a day after allegedly killing two officers and wounding a third. Officers hunted through the night for the man identified as Dezi Freeman, who fled on foot into densely forested terrain after a shootout on Tuesday morning in the northeast of Victoria state.
Police said they deployed “every resource” to find him, setting up a wide cordon at the scene, a rural property with a house and a bus in the small town of Porepunkah. Freeman, described by local media as a radicalised conspiracy theorist, has survival skills and knows the area better than his pursuers, police said. “The suspect for this horrific event is still at large,” Victoria police chief commissioner Mike Bush told a news conference. “I can assure everyone that we are pouring every resource into this search for this person. We must find him,” he added. “He is very dangerous. He’s killed two police officers and injured a third.”
Police urged people in the area to stay indoors until further notice and education authorities closed the local primary school during the hunt. Officers spoke with the man’s partner and children to ensure they were safe and to rule out any hostage situation.
Police believe Freeman has multiple “powerful” firearms, Bush said. Ten police officers descended on the property on Tuesday morning to execute a search warrant when gunfire broke out, the police chief said. Police “did discharge shots in his direction”, apparently without wounding the gunman, Bush said. The incident, which occurred “over minutes”, resulted in the deaths of a 59-year old detective and a 35-year-old senior constable.
The wounded officer had been operated on and was “significantly damaged” but would recover, the police chief said. Freeman managed to flee the scene on foot despite officers giving chase, he said. While not revealing the cause for the search warrant, Bush said the police team that went to the property included local officers and members of the sexual offences and child investigation squad.
The manhunt was challenging, he said, explaining that Freeman was believed to understand “bushcraft” — surviving in nature — and “he will know that area better than us”. Australia’s The Age newspaper said Freeman was a self-professed “sovereign citizen”, referring to a movement that falsely believes it is not subject to laws passed by the government. — AFP
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