{"id":179530,"date":"2025-08-27T10:56:11","date_gmt":"2025-08-27T10:56:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/179530\/"},"modified":"2025-08-27T10:56:11","modified_gmt":"2025-08-27T10:56:11","slug":"suspected-porepunkah-gunman-dezi-freeman-stripped-of-gun-licence-prior-to-police-shooting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/179530\/","title":{"rendered":"Suspected Porepunkah gunman Dezi Freeman stripped of gun licence prior to police shooting"},"content":{"rendered":"

The suspected gunman wanted over the deadly shootings of two police officers last year complained to a court that he had his firearms licence cancelled and lost membership to his gun club.<\/p>\n

Victoria Police is currently undertaking a large-scale manhunt for Dezi Freeman, 56, who allegedly gunned down the officers and injured a third as they executed a search warrant for historical sex crimes at a property in Porepunkah, in the state’s high country.<\/p>\n

Follow live: Police manhunt for suspected Porepunkah gunman Dezi Freeman continues<\/a><\/p>\n

Investigators believe Mr Freeman, who considers himself a so-called sovereign citizen, is heavily armed with multiple weapons.<\/p>\n

The search has prompted investigators to put the tiny town at the foot of Victoria’s alpine region into lockdown, with shops and business closed as police scour the region.<\/p>\n

A victim of a ‘personal vendetta’<\/p>\n

Mr Freeman last year launched a Supreme Court challenge after his drivers licence was cancelled and he was disqualified from driving for two years after being convicted of speeding, refusing to submit to a drug test and using a mobile phone while driving.<\/p>\n

Mr Freeman, who was born Desmond Filby, told the Supreme Court he and his family were the victims of “malicious prosecution” and “personal vendetta” after he was stopped for speeding outside a fish and chip shop.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

Victoria Police released this image of Dezi Freeman as their search for the suspected gunman continues. (Supplied: Victoria Police)<\/p>\n

According to the court, the incident sparked a heated exchange with Mr Freeman who ultimately drove off without completing a drug test while simultaneously filming the officers who pulled him up.<\/p>\n

“I had my firearms licences cancelled and lost my club membership,” Mr Freeman told the Supreme Court, which ultimately struck down the challenge.<\/p>\n

“We endured four acts of criminal trespass and harassment on our home by police and I have been dragged through four years of court hearings.”<\/p>\n

Victoria Police declined to comment on whether Mr Freeman had his gun licence cancelled.<\/p>\n

Court records obtained by the ABC paint the picture of a man who felt deeply wronged by police, who he previously described as “terrorist thugs” and “friggin’ Nazis”<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Dezi<\/p>\n

Investigators believe Dezi Freeman identifies as a sovereign citizen.\u00a0 (Supplied)<\/p>\n

“Disability pensioner Dezi Freeman takes his kids fishing down a quiet country road and suffers years of malicious damaging persecution by an increasing number of state employees who hid behind the colour of the law,” Mr Freeman told the court.<\/p>\n

“They knock us down and then keep kicking us when we’re down. In other words, they look for the splinter in my eye while tripping over the logs in theirs.”<\/p>\n

Uncovering the private home life of alleged gunman<\/p>\n

The documents also revealed deeply personal details of Mr Freeman’s home life which he said would be seriously affected by the loss of his license.<\/p>\n

Mr Freeman described himself as a disability pensioner but said he was once a professional photographer \u2014 a job which helped him sponsored his wife to come to Australia from the Philippines.<\/p>\n

He revealed his wife was suffering from anxiety after the birth of their child and that all their children were being homeschooled.<\/p>\n

“Taking my licence has just pushed us to breaking point given the hell we have already been through,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Swimming and driving has always been a core activity of homeschool for us.”<\/p>\n

Police reported that Mr Freeman’s wife and children attended a police station on Tuesday evening.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Public records reveal that Mr Freeman has had multiple run-ins with the police over the last 30 years, mostly for driving offences.<\/p>\n

In addition to the driving charges he challenged, Mr Freeman has previously been fined for speeding twice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The suspected gunman wanted over the deadly shootings of two police officers last year complained to a court…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":177248,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4740,101504,101502,56183,83859,50,100523,66160,101503],"class_list":{"0":"post-179530","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-australia","9":"tag-desmond-thilby","10":"tag-dezi-freeman","11":"tag-fugitive","12":"tag-manhunt","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-porepunkah","15":"tag-shooter","16":"tag-sovereign-citizen"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115100371152182185","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179530","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=179530"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179530\/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=179530"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=179530"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=179530"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}