Almost nine months after two Victoria Police officers were shot dead in Victoria’s high country, the owner of the remote property at the centre of the siege has spoken publicly for the first time.
Andrew Swift has described the frantic moments after the shooting at his bushland property near Porepunkah, including how he helped a third wounded officer get to an ambulance after the attack by Dezi Freeman.
In video published by YouTube channel The Living Free Movement, Swift said he saw the injured officer bleeding heavily after police had withdrawn from the immediate scene.
“He’s wearing dark-coloured pants, but you could tell they were all wet from blood, from a gunshot somewhere down on his lower half,” Swift said.
Swift said he first thought about using a Kubota vehicle to move the officer, but quickly realised it would not work because of the seriousness of the injuries.
“I could tell because of his lower injury I wouldn’t be able to get him in the Kubota [tractor], so I then said to police I’m going to go get a more suitable vehicle, so we can get this guy in, get him to the ambulance.”
The property drew national attention after Detective Leading Senior Constable Neal Thompson and Senior Constable Vadim de Waart-Hottart were fatally shot there on August 26, 2025.
After the ambush, Freeman fled into rugged alpine bushland, triggering a large cross-border manhunt that continued for months. Specialist officers eventually found him at a remote camp near Thologolong on March 30, where he was shot dead.
In a statement, Swift and his wife Rebecca said they had intentionally chosen not to speak to mainstream media and instead wanted to work with “independent media” outlets.
“Our hope is to work with people who are willing to engage thoughtfully and help ensure a more complete and balanced account is available,” the statement read.
“The story we will be sharing with you has not been presented by any mainstream media, because we have maintained complete silence with the msm propaganda machine and have avoided them.”
The couple said they accepted that Freeman was responsible for the killings of the two officers, but argued the confrontation may have ended differently if “protocol and common sense, decency, humanity and reason had … been employed on that day”.
“We did not anticipate or expect any of what occurred. But somehow the mainstream media were experts on Dezi Freeman from the first day,” they said.
The Living Free Movement presents itself online as a platform focused on “freedom in health, lifestyle, clean food, lawful processes”.
According to the channel’s Armstrong, the Swifts approached him because they believed important parts of the story had been misunderstood, including claims that Freeman followed sovereign citizen ideology.
Freeman, formerly known as Desmond Filby, was reported to have become deeply distrustful of authorities during the pandemic, with people close to him describing him as increasingly hostile toward police.
