{"id":177247,"date":"2025-08-26T14:35:14","date_gmt":"2025-08-26T14:35:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/177247\/"},"modified":"2025-08-26T14:35:14","modified_gmt":"2025-08-26T14:35:14","slug":"accused-porepunkah-shooter-and-sovereign-citizen-dezi-freeman-once-called-police-terrorist-thugs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/177247\/","title":{"rendered":"Accused Porepunkah shooter and ‘sovereign citizen’ Dezi Freeman once called police ‘terrorist thugs’"},"content":{"rendered":"

The man accused of shooting dead two police officers in Victoria’s north-east is a “sovereign citizen” who once called police “terrorist thugs” and was involved in an attempt to have former Premier Daniel Andrews tried for treason.<\/p>\n

Police visited the home of Dezi Freeman in Porepunkah, near Bright, on Tuesday morning to execute a warrant related to alleged historical sex crimes.<\/p>\n

The town in Victoria’s north-east was locked down and swarmed with emergency services after Mr Freeman allegedly fatally shot a 59-year-old detective and a 35-year-old senior constable.<\/p>\n

Police Chief Commissioner Mike Bush on Tuesday night said the alleged gunman escaped into the bush and was dangerous<\/a>. His whereabouts are unknown.<\/p>\n

“We know the person is heavily armed,” he told reporters.<\/p>\n

Two police killed in country Victoria<\/a><\/p>\n

Two officers were killed as they executed a warrant in Porepunkah in north-east Victoria.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Neighbours say Mr Freeman, aged in his 50s, was living with a group of other people in a compound at the end of a dirt track on the outskirts of town.<\/p>\n

Sovereign citizens use false legal theories to support their belief that the government is illegitimate.<\/p>\n

Although he now uses the names Dezi Freeman and Dezi Bird Freeman, Mr Freeman was previously known as Desmond Filby.<\/p>\n

In his most recent legal stoush with Victoria Police, Mr Freeman took an officer to the Supreme Court last year over the cancellation of his drivers licence for two years.<\/p>\n

Court documents show he represented himself, and during the hearing called police “friggin’ Nazis” and “terrorist thugs”.<\/p>\n

“What’s worse than a swastika is the inverted pentagram, the Satanic symbol that they wear and they behave like it as well,” he said during the hearing, The Border Mail reported.<\/p>\n

Justice James Gorton threw out his case.<\/p>\n

\"Dezi<\/p>\n

Mr Freeman featured in a 2018 episode of A Current Affair. (Supplied: A Current Affair)<\/p>\n

Mr Freeman was previously arrested during a protest outside Myrtleford Magistrates’ Court after attending a failed private prosecution of the then-premier, Daniel Andrews, for treason and fraud, in 2021.<\/p>\n

The court hearing descended into chaos with participants, who joined by video link, showing pictures of their chickens and doctored images of Mr Andrews as a dictator, according to multiple media reports.<\/p>\n

The matter, brought by Bright chiropractor Anthony Herman, was struck out.<\/p>\n

Before that, Mr Freeman attempted to arrest a magistrate in Wangaratta in 2019 during a dispute over public access to the Mount Buffalo National Park.<\/p>\n

Mr Freeman has also had run-ins with his neighbours at a previous address, appearing on A Current Affair in 2018 after complaining about being harassed by motorbike riders next door to his property.<\/p>\n

One neighbour told the ABC Mr Freeman was an experienced bushman.<\/p>\n

“He’s well-versed in the bush and there’s caves up there, so it’ll be a while before they find him, I think,” he said.<\/p>\n

A significant search of the region around Porepunkah was continuing early on Tuesday night.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The man accused of shooting dead two police officers in Victoria’s north-east is a “sovereign citizen” who once…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":177248,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4740,100524,50,5488,100523],"class_list":{"0":"post-177247","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-australia","9":"tag-dezi-bird-freeman","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-police-shooting","12":"tag-porepunkah"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115095570143887911","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177247","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=177247"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177247\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/177248"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=177247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=177247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=177247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}