Heavily armed officers carrying out raids in country Victoria have put a small town on edge as the hunt for alleged double cop killer Dezi Freeman hits a new milestone.
Camouflaged officers sporting machine guns and heavy metal door-rams were seen on CCTV as they filed past a shop on the main street of Mount Egerton, about 97km north-west of Melbourne, about 4am on Wednesday.
Locals reported hearing what sounded like gunfire shortly after, with the officers believed to have carried out a raid on a nearby property.
A Victoria Police spokesman told Daily Mail their officers were only there to execute a ‘driving warrant’, and directed further enquiries to the Australian Federal Police.
The Australian Federal Police confirmed it had been in control of the operation, but refused to reveal why or what its officers were doing.
‘The AFP executed a search warrant on a regional property in the Victorian town of Mount Egerton today,’ a spokesperson said.
‘There is no threat to community safety. Further information will be provided at an appropriate time.’
While Victoria Police utilises its Special Operations Group for such operations, the AFP uses its equivalent Tactical Response Team.
Heavily armed officers believed to be from the AFP’s Tactical Response Team raided a property on Wednesday in country Victoria
The mysterious operation instantly put the small town on edge, with locals linking the raid to the ongoing hunt for Freeman, who remains on the run three months to the day since he vanished.
Freeman has not been seen since August 26 when he allegedly shot dead officers Vadim de Waart-Hottart and Neal Thompson as they helped execute a search warrant on his property in Porepunkah in Victoria’s high country.
The alleged murders sparked a massive police hunt that saw officers scour bushland in and around Freeman’s wilderness retreat located in the shadow of Mount Buffalo.
‘Dezi in town,’ one local posted to social media upon word of the early morning raid.
Residents reported hearing shots fired, which was likely the sound of flash-bang grenades often used by the elite group of federal police.
Just last month, a source told Daily Mail officers involved in the initial search for Freeman were told by force command he is now believed to have fled the state despite the initial police dragnet.
‘He got away. The belief is he somehow escaped and is now holed up safely across the border,’ a source said.
Locals were worried Dezi Freeman was in town
Some locals reported hearing ‘gunfire’ during the raid
While it remains unclear where police believe Freeman may be hiding, it is suspected he was helped by supporters in the days and weeks following the tragedy.
Victoria Police Commissioner Mike Bush returned to the region last week.
According to the state’s top cop, there are only three possibilities: Freeman is still in the area, being harboured by locals; he is dead; or he is somewhere else.
‘We’re still no clearer as to whether he’s dead or alive,’ he said.
Just weeks ago, police conducted ‘firearms testing’ in the remote region where Freeman went missing as part of their search.
The testing was triggered by reports of a gunshot in the vicinity about 11.45am on August 26.
Freeman had allegedly opened fire on police moments earlier, killing two and wounding a third officer.
They were among 10 officers serving a warrant at Freeman’s Porepunkah home when the confrontation erupted into a deadly shootout about 10.30am.
They were among 10 officers serving a warrant at Freeman’s Porepunkah home when the confrontation erupted into a deadly shootout about 10.30am
The hunt for Freeman has dragged on for three long months now
Dezi Freeman hasn’t been seen now for three months
‘The area has since been searched by police, however no trace of Freeman was located,’ Victoria Police said in a statement after the tests.
‘Investigators are hopeful that the firearms testing may assist police with the ongoing search.’
Victoria Police’s failure to capture Freeman has been an ongoing PR nightmare for force command.
News agencies across the country flocked back to the alpine region where Freeman went missing this week to speak to worried locals for the three-month milestone.
Those close to Freeman believe he had judged that he would never see his family again after the shootout, telling his wife Mali he would see her in heaven, The Australian reported this week.
Sources familiar with his last movements had earlier told the Daily Mail that Freeman told his wife to flee in the wake of the shooting, and she ran across a field with her three-year-old in her arms before she was picked up by her older son, Koah.
Well before the shootout, Freeman had said he was prepared to do anything rather than be caught by police and in a stand-off, he would kill himself rather than be arrested.
Freeman has been compared to the action character John Rambo (pictured)
‘He had his own form of spirituality,’ one of his contacts said, adding that Freeman was ‘Rambo, ten times over’.
Rumours about what happened to Freeman continue to swirl across the nation, with police desperate to find him dead or alive.
‘We need his body,’ a seasoned detective told Daily Mail in the days after Freeman went missing.
