Victoria Police have named the two police officers shot dead while executing a search warrant on a remote property in Porepunkah.
Detective Leading Senior Constable Neal Thompson and Senior Constable Vadim De Waart were among 10 police who were met with gunfire in an ambush by alleged killer Dezi Freeman.
Another officer was wounded and flown to The Alfred hospital in Melbourne for surgery. He is expected to recover.
“This devastating loss of Neal and Vadim has struck at the heart of Victoria Police, the broader policing family and the community of Porepunkah,” said Chief Commissioner Mike Bush.
“In the coming days, weeks and months, we will all grieve this loss and deeply miss our colleagues and friends who have paid the ultimate sacrifice in the line of duty.”
The police statement said it was “with incredible sadness” that the two slain officers were named.
Thompson joined Victoria Police in September 1987 and spent seven years in general duties at Collingwood Police Station. For the next decade, he worked as a detective at the Major Fraud Squad and the State Crime Squad, before taking up his most recent post at Wangaratta CIU in July 2007.
Thompson had been planning for his imminent retirement.
“Neal was an adventurer and enjoyed all things outdoors,” the statement said. “He loved getting out in nature, and his friends and colleagues regularly joined him on these trips.
“Neal had spent the past six years alongside his partner, Lisa, the love of his life… together with Lisa, Neal had built a new home and had a long list of tasks planned after he knocked off work for the last time.”
De Waart started his policing career at the Victoria Police Academy in December 2018, later joining St Kilda Police Station and then PORT. At the time of his death, he was on temporary assignment in Wangaratta.
“An eternal optimist and avid traveller, Vadim was fluent in French, Spanish, Flemish and English. He had also completed scuba dives all around the world and motorcycling trips more locally with his friends and colleagues.
“He was a keen gin collector and always picked up a local bottle on his overseas adventures for his large collection at home. While travelling was his passion, Vadim was extremely proud to have purchased his first home in Melbourne in recent years.”
De Waart’s parents live in his native Belgium and his younger brother in Switzerland, but he has extended family in Melbourne.
Commissioner Bush said police took a risk every time they went to work to protect the community.
“While we all live with the knowledge that the worst could happen on a shift, we don’t expect it to,” he said.
“In these difficult times it is so important that our people stand together and support each other, and I have full confidence that we will all do this with dignity and respect.”
Loud bangs were heard near Mount Buffalo and a helicopter has hovered overhead as the search for the gunman continued on Wednesday.
Despite the activity near the small town of Porepunkah, about 300 kilometres north-east of Melbourne, on Wednesday, Victoria Police said there had been no sightings of Freeman since his deadly confrontation with officers on Tuesday.
Police have confirmed they’d gone to the remote property to serve a search warrant connected to a sexual or child abuse investigation.
Porepunkah remained in lockdown on Wednesday as police pursued Freeman, who has a history of court interactions, over the shootings after he fled into dense bushland.
Police warned the public to not approach the fugitive, who was previously known as Desmond Filby, as he is believed to be armed.
“Filby is described as being Caucasian, 183 centimetres tall, medium build, short dark hair and brown eyes,” they said.
“He was last seen wearing dark-green (khaki) tracksuit pants, dark-green rain jacket, brown Blundstone boots and reading glasses.”
Members of Victoria Police’s Special Operations Group and Critical Incident Response Team remained part of the search. Armed reinforcements from NSW also arrived on Wednesday.
Elsewhere, the Australian Transport Safety Bureau imposed a temporary no-fly zone above Porepunkah on Wednesday. Victoria Police said the restriction applied to all aircraft and drones within a four-nautical-mile radius of 6619 Great Alpine Road, Porepunkah (Feathertop Winery) and would remain active until at least 11.30pm on Friday.
“Given the suspect in this matter is heavily armed, this condition has been granted due to the risk to aircraft and drones, as well as potential implications associated with the suspect tracking police movements based off media coverage,” they said.
A police vantage point has been established at the winery, where dozens of officers have gathered.
Bush said Freeman knew bushcraft and could be carrying multiple high-powered guns.
“We must find him,” Bush said.
Freeman is believed to be a sovereign citizen, an ideology that questions government authority and whose followers believe the rule of law doesn’t apply to them and who disassociate from society.
He was previously arrested during a protest outside Myrtleford Magistrates Court in 2021, after the failed private prosecution of then-Victorian premier Daniel Andrews for treason.
In October last year, Freeman launched a Supreme Court case over three 2020 driving convictions, for speeding, using a phone while driving and refusing to give an oral fluid sample for testing.
He originally appealed to the County Court, where he was acquitted of the speeding charge but remained convicted of the other two offences, and then asked for the higher court to review the decision.
“He gave evidence that he was a safe driver with an excellent driving record, he had had a difficult childhood, had overcome disadvantage, and had a history of unpleasant encounters with police officers,” Freeman told the Supreme Court, in his application for judicial review.
“Mr Freeman referred to the police in his evidence as ‘frigging Nazis’, ‘Gestapo’ and ‘terrorist thugs’.”
He claimed “the absolute heart of his case” was he was acting in self-defence or was under duress when he drove away from police, while holding up his phone to film them.
“I state that I was under extreme duress. You’ve seen the video. You’ve seen my demeanour,” he told the court.
“I had to, like, get myself and my kids out of there and hope I wasn’t … gonna get chased by (the informant) or shot at or whatever else unknown.
“I felt threatened and preyed upon …. even the sight of a cop or a cop car … it’s like an Auschwitz survivor seeing a Nazi soldier.”
Justice James Gorton found Freeman had no prospects of success and dismissed his application, in November 2024.
Freeman reportedly yelled “shame on you” at the judge.
He and his family also featured in a 2018 segment on Nine’s A Current Affair about a neighbourhood dispute and in 2019 he tried to arrest a magistrate in Wangaratta.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Australia’s security intelligence had previously warned about “far-right extremism” involving so-called sovereign citizens.
“The fact this ideology of not seeing themselves being subject to our laws and our society … is of real concern,” he told ABC television on Tuesday night.
He also drew similarities between the alleged incident and another in Wieambilla in 2022, when two Queensland officers conducting a welfare check were shot dead by people who identified as sovereign citizens.
Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan described Freeman as a criminal and said the law applied to everyone.
-with AAP
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