Australian police have shot and killed Dezi Freeman after the double-murderer spent seven months on the run.
A well-known conspiracy theorist, Freeman, 56, gunned down two police officers on his property in the small Victorian town of Porepunkah last August, before fleeing into dense bushland and evading extensive searches.
Victoria Police say a man was shot dead after an hours-long stand-off at a rural property in the state’s north-east on Monday morning. Chief Commissioner Mike Bush said the man was believed to be Freeman, but formal identification was still under way.
“Today, an evil man is dead,” said Victoria Premier Jacinta Allan. “It’s over.”
Police said they had surrounded a building – described as a cross between a shipping container and a long caravan – on a rural property around 05:30 local time (18:30 GMT on Sunday).
After three hours and multiple police pleas, a man believed to be Freeman came outside and was shot dead.
Details are still being confirmed, Bush told reporters, but he believed Freeman emerged wrapped in a blanket and armed with a gun, possibly taken from one of the slain officers back in August.
“Our ultimate goal was to arrest the person,” Bush said. “There was an opportunity for him to surrender peacefully but he did not.”