Porepunkah police shootings
2025 CE.
Shown on the map at -36.702°, 146.883°.
On the morning of 26 August 2025, police officers Neal Thompson and Vadim De Waart-Hottart were killed in a shooting at a property near the regional Victorian town of Porepunkah, Australia, while attempting to execute a search warrant in relation to child sexual abuse allegedly committed by Dezi Bird Freeman who they planned to arrest. As police were making entry, Freeman, a self-proclaimed sovereign citizen who was known to police, shot and killed the two officers and shot a third officer before fleeing into dense bushland in the Mount Buffalo National Park. A manhunt involving hundreds of police officers ensued, with Victoria Police supported by interstate police forces, the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation and the Australian Defence Force. The number of officers involved in the manhunt was unprecedented in Australian history, and there was a A$1 million reward for information leading to his arrest, which is the largest reward ever offered in Victorian history. On the morning of 30 March 2026, Freeman was shot dead by police officers in Thologolong near Walwa.
Text from the Wikipedia article Porepunkah police shootings, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.