{"id":177829,"date":"2025-08-26T19:39:14","date_gmt":"2025-08-26T19:39:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/177829\/"},"modified":"2025-08-26T19:39:14","modified_gmt":"2025-08-26T19:39:14","slug":"search-for-alleged-gunman-continues-after-two-police-killed-in-porepunkah-in-victorias-north-east","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/177829\/","title":{"rendered":"Search for alleged gunman continues after two police killed in Porepunkah in Victoria’s north-east"},"content":{"rendered":"

A massive search continues for a heavily armed man who allegedly shot and killed two policeman<\/a> at his property in the state’s north-east on Tuesday morning.<\/p>\n

A 59-year-old detective and a 35-year-old senior constable were killed during a shootout at a property in the town of Porepunkah, about 300 kilometres from Melbourne.<\/p>\n

A detective was also seriously injured after being shot in the lower body, and yesterday underwent surgery.<\/p>\n

It is believed the person accused of killing the officers, Porepunkah man Dezi Freeman<\/a>, is a “sovereign citizen” who once called police “terrorist thugs”.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday night, Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Mike Bush said 10 officers attended a semi-rural property on Rayner Track shortly after 10:30am to execute a search warrant.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

The shooting unfolded on a rural property on the outskirts of Porepunkah on Tuesday. (ABC News)<\/p>\n

“They were met by the offender and they were murdered in cold blood,” Chief Commissioner Bush said.<\/p>\n

“He was heavily armed and he was able to escape into the bush. I do understand that he was pursued, but he was able to get away.”<\/p>\n

It is believed he headed into the bush alone.<\/p>\n

Police have accounted for the whereabouts of the suspect’s family with his partner and children attending a police station late Tuesday evening.<\/p>\n

“There is nothing to suggest they were ever in the company of the suspect following [Tuesday’s] incident,” police said.<\/p>\n

PM says heart goes out to grieving families<\/p>\n

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, speaking on ABC program 7.30 last night, described the shooting as “horrific”.<\/p>\n

“This is terrible news, and my heart goes out to the families who are grieving tonight,” Mr Albanese said.<\/p>\n

“The men and women who wear blue, or wear a uniform, take a risk when they go to work each and every day.<\/p>\n

“But this incident is quite horrific, and the whole of the police family will also be grieving at this time.”<\/p>\n

On Tuesday night, Porepunkah residents received text messages from Victoria Police warning them to stay inside due to “an active armed offender in the general area of Porepunkah”.<\/p>\n

\"Victoria<\/p>\n

Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Mike Bush says the man is heavily armed and dangerous. (ABC News)<\/p>\n

“He is obviously a very dangerous person and he needs to be caught. And that’s why we’ve committed every resource to do that,” Chief Commissioner Bush said.<\/p>\n

He said police were receiving a wealth of information that they were currently working through, and called on anyone else with information to come forward.<\/p>\n

Hundreds of police officers have been assigned to the search.<\/p>\n

Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan described the two police officers’ deaths as “heartbreaking”.<\/p>\n

“Policing comes with danger, and every day our police officers meet that danger with enormous courage and dedication,” she says.<\/p>\n

“And this tragedy is a painful reminder of that bravery”.<\/p>\n

Police officers ‘paid the ultimate price’<\/p>\n

Police Association Victoria CEO Wayne Gatt said the two police members had “paid the ultimate price for protecting the community” and that police stations across the state had fallen silent.<\/p>\n

“And I do want I do want to acknowledge that we still have hundreds of our members putting themselves in danger right as we speak in an attempt to conclude this situation.”<\/p>\n

\"Flowers<\/p>\n

Flowers were left at Wangaratta police station. (ABC News: Sacha Payne)<\/p>\n

\u00a0Mr Gatt said police officers around Victoria would keep busy doing their jobs, but eventually crash in the “quiet and silence of their homes”.<\/p>\n

“They will have to deal with the loss of their colleagues and they will hug their loved ones a little tighter, something sadly, two of our members tonight will have missed the opportunity to do forever,” he said on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Anyone with information is urged to contact their local police station, triple zero or Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A massive search continues for a heavily armed man who allegedly shot and killed two policeman at his…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":177830,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4740,5416,50,43416,5488,100523,8344],"class_list":{"0":"post-177829","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-australia","9":"tag-deaths","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-officers","12":"tag-police-shooting","13":"tag-porepunkah","14":"tag-victoria-police"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115096765323908586","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177829","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=177829"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177829\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/177830"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=177829"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=177829"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=177829"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}