Australia posts $840k reward for arrest of gunman after police killings

Sydney – Australia posted a A$1 million (S$840,000) reward on Sept 6 for the arrest of a gunman who allegedly killed two police officers, as a vast manhunt entered its 12th day without any sightings.

Police in the eastern state of Victoria said they were offering the “life-changing” amount in their hunt for the 56-year-old fugitive, Desmond Freeman.

Freeman is accused of opening fire when police arrived at his home in Victoria with a search warrant.

The shooting killed 59-year-old Detective Neal Thompson and 35-year-old Senior Constable Vadim De Waart-Hottart. A third officer had surgery after being wounded in the lower body.

More than 450 police officers have been searching in vain for the alleged shooter, a reported conspiracy theorist who has bush survival skills, after he fled into dense forest by the small town of Porepunkah.

The area is scattered with mine shafts and caves.

Now, Victoria police say they are offering up to A$1 million for information leading to Freeman’s arrest – a record sum in the state for the detention of a suspect.

“There is no doubt that up to a million dollars is a life-changing amount of money for anyone and has the potential to completely change their circumstances,” said the Victoria Police homicide squad’s Detective Inspector Dean Thomas.

“This figure recognises the seriousness of this violent offending and our commitment to locating Freeman as soon as possible so that he is no longer a risk to the broader community,” he said.

He denied the reward was an “act of desperation”, telling reporters it was enticement for people who may have been reluctant to come forward so far.

“The last confirmed sighting we have of Freeman was on the day of the murders,” Insp Thomas said.

Police said they were pursuing various scenarios.

“At this time, there is nothing to indicate that Freeman is being assisted by a specific person. However, given the difficult terrain and the requirement for various supplies, this remains a possibility,” they said in a statement.

At large or dead

“Police are also open to the possibilities that he remains at large alone or is dead as a result of self-harm.”

Freeman was last seen wearing dark green tracksuit pants, a dark green rain jacket, brown boots and reading glasses.

“Police believe Freeman remains armed and advise members of the public not to approach him,” the police said.

As part of their search, they raided a property last week and briefly detained the gunman’s wife Amalia Freeman and their teenage son.

Mrs Freeman has issued a public statement urging her husband to surrender to police.

Australian media outlets say Freeman is a self-professed “sovereign citizen”, referring to a movement that falsely believes it is not subject to laws passed by the government.

Police have not divulged the cause for the search warrant that 10 officers tried to execute on the day of the shooting.

But they say the police team at his home included members of the sexual offences and child investigation squad.

During the shoot-out, police fired at the suspect but apparently did not wound him, they said.

Deadly shootings are relatively rare in Australia, and police deaths in shootings even rarer.

The latest gunshot death listed in a national memorial to fallen police showed one officer was shot and killed in 2023.

A ban on automatic and semi-automatic weapons has been in place in Australia since a 1996 mass shooting in Port Arthur, Tasmania, in which a lone gunman killed 35 people. AFP