More than 100 properties have been searched in the hunt for the alleged Porepunkah police killer, as footage of the fugitive arguing about mask mandates with police during the pandemic emerges.
On the ninth day of the search Victoria’s police chief commissioner, Mike Bush, would not be drawn on where they think Dezi Freeman is after he allegedly shot and killed two officers at a property in Porepunkah, about 300km north-east of Melbourne last Tuesday. Police teams were on Wednesday seen working on the south-eastern side of the valley under Mount Buffalo.
Bush told reporters police had searched more than 100 properties to date.
Sign up: AU Breaking News email
Bush said Freeman’s wife, Amalia Freeman, had been at the property during the alleged shooting and had since been interviewed by police for obstructing the attempted arrest. She had not given police a formal statement, he said.
Amalia Freeman on Sunday appealed to her husband to surrender in a public statement that expressed sorrow at the police officers’ deaths
It came as videos emerged of Dezi Freeman during the Covid-19 pandemic, telling police officers they had the “intelligence of kindergarten children without any training”, arguing about face masks, and asking to meet with the local police chief so he could discuss the law.
The footage shows Freeman in a park in Benalla at some point during Covid lockdowns. Speaking to two police officers who are wearing masks, he says he “didn’t want any antagonistic, adversarial stuff” before the police officer explains that he needs to be wearing a mask because it is regulation.
Freeman says there is no law requiring him to wear a mask, and says the “hierarchy of law” between state and federal governments often gets mixed up.
“There’s so many reasons why these, these mask directions often don’t apply, all right, because people are protected by higher laws, and those higher laws overrule those other laws. Are you aware of these? Do they teach you this at the police academy?”
Another officer interrupts him, but Freeman continues.
“This is the trouble, you guys are given guns, tasers, all this gear, no offence, but like, the intelligence of a kindergarten child without the proper training. I don’t mean that offensively,” he says.
The officers say they do not want a scene before Freeman tells them they “couldn’t digest the truth”.
Freeman has a history of association with pseudo-legal and “sovereign citizen” ideas.
“Sovereign citizens” or pseudolaw adherents often have a range of conspiratorial beliefs, including that a country’s laws have become illegitimate and the government is corrupt, leading them to reject its authority.
When asked if there was a higher number of “sovereign citizens” in the alpine region on Wednesday, Bush said, “we know those type of people like to live more remotely and off the grid. So I think that should answer that”.
One local, who did not want to be named said there were about a dozen passionate sovereign citizens in the area, with police this week saying Freeman had “a wide network”.
Bush told the large media throng that police were “alive” to the possibility that others were harbouring Freeman.
“We plan to that possibility, and that’s why we appeal not just to him, but to all of his associates,” he said.
“If we knew where he was, he would be with us.”
For the second time since the shooting, he asked Freeman to come forward.
“I do appeal to the person responsible to hand themselves in immediately, and my message to him is that your destiny is in your hands.”
In Porepunkah, speculation continues to swirl about Freeman’s whereabouts – is he using the river system, who is helping him, where is he sleeping, has he managed to survive?
In online community groups, people discuss his potential whereabouts and which properties police have raided.
On Wednesday morning officers methodically searched properties in thick bushland beside the Buckland river.
Dressed in all black and equipped with large guns, elite officers pushed caravan doors open, took sniffer dogs through sheds, and hunted through homes.
“They called before they came,” said one man, who asked not to be named.
He said they had visited his property over the weekend asking all sorts of questions – did he know Freeman, had he seen anything suspicious, before telling him to keep safe.
Then, on Wednesday morning they rang, asking if they could come and search the property – it was big, covered in bush with a shipping container and a caravan parked out the back.
“I have the caravan out the back to do up,” he said. “They were very interested in it.
“They took the dog up to the shipping container and the shed. It’s a person scent dog so they can tell if someone’s been there.”
As the houses were searched, the helicopter hung low in the valley and off-road motorcycles could be heard in the distance. Police searched a pine plantation on the other side of the valley, a spot they had looked through two days ago.
“It was scary at the start, when we didn’t know what was going on,” the man said.
“Nuts it’s still going on and we live so close.”
