This was a job police knew could go nasty, but no one thought it would turn deadly

The most dangerous jobs in policing are those carried out every day – checking an abandoned car, sitting outside a Chinese restaurant or delivering a court warrant.

The reason is that while all police are armed, their guns stay holstered and are only drawn as a last resort. They are called first responders for a reason. They respond to circumstances, usually trying to take a low-key approach, ramping up as needed. A counter-punch, not a king hit.

If there is a belief a suspect is armed and has the potential to shoot, the raid will be conducted by the Special Operations Group, whose officers will usually have time to develop a plan to surprise the target and make an arrest with no shots fired.

Arresting gangsters usually goes to plan because everyone understands the rules.

When police headed to Porepunkah to deliver a warrant, they had conducted a risk assessment, checking for any prior convictions and previous behaviour of the resident.

He was known to be eccentric, a “sovereign citizen”, a sucker for conspiracy theories and a hater of police, blaming them for some of his problems. All would be flagged on the police computer system to forewarn those who would deal with him.

He changed his name to Dezi Freeman to reflect his bizarre political convictions. He is a man who believes the rules don’t apply to him and that he is a persecuted victim. In short, he is a weirdo with a grudge. But being a weirdo with a grudge doesn’t make you a killer.

Clearly police were wary, with 10 officers assigned for the job, probably to help search the property or respond if things became ugly. This was a job they knew could go nasty, but no one thought it would turn deadly.

And it did turn deadly within moments of the police entering the property. It’s early days in the investigation but planned or unplanned, this looks like an ambush.

It is understood police had previously seized weapons from Freeman, but it’s believed he still had a homemade shotgun and a high-powered hunting rifle.

Risks are graded. High risk may require SOG, critical incident response team or public order response team support.

Inquiries into how this case was graded and the allocation of resources will be conducted in the weeks and months ahead.

Police, uniformed and detectives, went to the property to deliver a summons and conduct a search.

And then it happened. While details are scarce, it is alleged the suspect opened fire, killing two police and injuring a third.

He lived on a bus on the property behind a security gate. He allegedly shot and killed two officers as they entered.

Police have yet to release the names of the two police killed but it is understood one was a much-loved local detective, 59, weeks from retirement, and the second, a Melbourne officer, 35, working in the area on temporary secondment.

It is believed Freeman took one police 40-calibre Smith and Wesson semi-automatic pistol with 30 rounds of ammunition from a fatally wounded officer.

A third officer, shot in the thigh, was able to take shelter. Even though there were seven police there, it took an hour for an extraction team to rescue him due to the ongoing risk from Freeman. The injured policeman, a local officer, has been flown to The Alfred hospital for surgery.

An SOG crew, including specialist snipers, was flown by helicopter to the scene. There are now hundreds of police involved in the hunt.

Porepunkah was placed in lockdown with the killer fleeing into the bush. This will make the SOG manhunt complex. Chief Commissioner Mike Bush says he wants the matter resolved peacefully with the arrest of the suspect. That will entirely be a matter for Freeman.

The property is heavily wooded. Police will search knowing the offender may have already set up ambush points, built hidden camps and possibly booby-trapped areas.

The initial police report suggested an ambush, similar to the Queensland extremist Christian attack carried out by offenders with a sovereign citizen background.

In December 2022 police went to a property in Wieambilla on what they thought was a routine missing persons inquiry.

It was a planned ambush that resulted in constables Matthew Arnold and Rachel McCrow and neighbour Alan Dare being shot dead.

The offenders, brothers Gareth and Nathaniel Train, and Gareth’s wife, Stacey Train, were shot dead by police following a siege.

As in the Queensland attack, it is likely that ASIO will assess whether the Porepunkah shooting was a terrorist act.

Detectives and intelligence experts will ask, was Freeman waiting for police; was he planning an ambush?

In 1988, two young constables, Steven Tynan and Damian Eyre, were called to a routine stolen car job in which the car was dumped in the middle of Walsh Street, South Yarra.

It was an ambush with a group of armed robbers waiting in the shadows. Both police were shot dead.

Ten years later, police officers Rod Miller and Gary Silk pulled over a car in Cochranes Road, Moorabbin, near a Chinese restaurant that was a likely target of prolific armed robbers. They, too, were shot dead.

In both cases, police were conducting what they believed were routine, low-risk operations.

The sort police do every day. Until it turns deadly.

Bush has begun his five-year term with a low-key approach. Now he will need to lead from the front in the most awful circumstances.

It is every chief commissioner’s nightmare. A police funeral with full honours for a member shot on duty.

For Bush, there will be two.

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