New details have emerged after a man believed to be fugitive killer Dezi Freeman was shot dead by police.
Authorities have yet to officially confirm the man’s identity, but during a press conference on Monday morning, Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Mike Bush said: “We’ve said the same thing to the family that we’re saying to you; that we believe it is Freeman.”
“But we have to go to through a formal identification process.”
Despite his death being widely reported, police have to wait for “fingerprints and other formal identification means” to be “100 per cent confident” in providing a definitive ruling.
It has been reported that the confrontation took place near a building, described as a cross between a shipping container and a long caravan.
According to the Herald Sun, Special Operations Group officers had to wait overnight before the confrontation took place after flash bang grenades were deployed on Monday morning.
Chief Commissioner Bush added there had been an “appeal to encourage the person to come out” before the man was killed.
“It did result from a standoff, the deployment of tactics,” he said.
“He then exited the building. There was an opportunity for him to surrender peacefully, which he did not.”
Since the reports of Freeman’s death, his eldest son Koah, 20, took to social media to slam those celebrating his father’s death.
“I am not here to defend my father’s actions because I know what he did was wrong,’ he wrote on Facebook.
“Just bear in mind that to you’s my father was a cop killer, but to me that’s still my father who raised me to be the man I am today. And for the people who know me well they know exactly what I’m talking about.
“This is news that I’ll be grieving about while some of you disgusting humans celebrate online for me to watch.”
Chief Commissioner Bush confirmed authorities had been in contact with Freeman’s family following this morning’s confrontation.
Freeman had been on the run since August, after he fatally shot two police officers, and injured a third, while they were executing a warrant at Freeman’s Porepunkah property.
His wife, Amalia, known as Mali, and their teenage son were arrested and released by police in the days after the shootings, after a review found there was insufficient cause to lay any charges.
Mali later issued a statement through her lawyer, calling on her husband to surrender.
“Today, we won’t reflect on the loss of a coward. We will remember the courage and bravery of our fallen members and every officer that has doggedly pursued this outcome for the community,” Police Association of Victoria secretary Wayne Gatt said in a statement on Monday morning.
“Closure isn’t the right word. This represents a step forward for our members, for the families of our fallen members and for the community.”
Image: news.com.au
