Whatever the outcome, accused cop killer will not escape

Accused double police killer Dezi Freeman faces a simple choice: life in prison or death.

If he is arrested and charged, he will be the first offender to face court after a law was passed in 2018 banning parole for police killers.

This means that if he is convicted, there will be no plea hearing, no mitigating circumstances, no wriggle room and no judicial discretion. It will be a life sentence with no chance of release.

In a case with a thousand unknowns, there is one certainty.

He will not escape. He will be arrested, shoot himself or be shot.

At the time of writing, Freeman is believed to still be in bushland adjacent to the property in Porepunkah where he is alleged to have shot and killed two police and wounded a third.

After an initial investigation, which included questioning his wife, police believe he is armed with multiple high-powered weapons, including a stolen police handgun with 30 rounds of ammunition.

As he is a so-called sovereign citizen who believes he is at war with the government and police, law enforcement will work on the theory Freeman had planned a confrontation and might have arms, food and shelter set up in the bush.

This means there won’t be a broad push into the dense scrub, which would give Freeman an advantage. He has ambushed police once. He should not be given the slightest chance to do it again.

Police have used a helicopter with thermal imaging and the capacity to carry snipers to look for the offender. They also have access to unmanned drones.

Winter rain may slow the search, but it also leaves the alleged offender in freezing, wet conditions. Cold makes someone on the run move or light a fire. Movement can be tracked, fire creates a thermal footprint and smoke can be seen.

Local police who know Neal Thompson, the popular Wangaratta detective killed in the ambush, have been assigned secondary roles so they are unlikely to confront the alleged offender.

A second wave of police reinforcements are being prepared if the search drags on. Other police will step in to fill the jobs left vacant in Melbourne.

Thompson, who was days away from retirement, had bought a local hobby farm and told friends he was looking forward to a trekking holiday in South America. He remarked he was “sick of the paperwork” and was going to be “looking after a few cows”.

The second policeman shot dead was Senior Constable Vadim de Waart, 35, who was on a week’s secondment from Melbourne. His family had to be notified overseas.

If the raid warrant had been served two weeks later, neither man would have been there.

Intelligence officers have checked Freeman’s social media contacts, who might be warned not to offer the fugitive any support or face criminal charges.

The Special Operations Group, supported by Search and Rescue, have taken the lead in the hunt, with Homicide and Professional Standards leading the murder and internal investigations.

The SOG spend months training for bush extractions and sieges and successfully arrested the heavily armed High Country killer, Greg Lynn, in his bush camp. Lynn was caught by surprise, while Freeman knows they are coming.

Chief Commissioner Mike Bush has repeatedly said he wants a peaceful arrest, but that is in Freeman’s hands.

If he fires shots or acts in a manner that threatens police, he will be shot. That is the law of self-defence. If he surrenders and is not a threat he will be arrested. That is the rule of law.

The first priority of the operation is to ensure no police, emergency service workers or members of the public are harmed.

This is why Porepunkah has been put into virtual lockdown.

The second priority is to locate the offender.

What happens after that is entirely up to him.

Then there will be a judicial outcome.

It will be examined in court. Either the Supreme at a trial, if Freeman is found alive, or at the Coroners if he is not.

For the moment Freeman can run and he can hide.

But time is not on his side – and it is running out.

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