Two men arrested in connection to Dezi Freeman’s movements after Porepunkah shootings
Police have arrested two men in north-east Victoria as part of Operation Summit, the probe into Dezi Freeman’s movements after the Porepunkah shootings.
Intelligence analysis by GPT-5.4 Mini
The arrests mark a fresh phase in the investigation into how Dezi Freeman moved after killing two police officers, injuring a third, and spending months on the run before dying in a police shooting. The case is now overlapping with coronial scrutiny of the deaths and the police operation that followed.
Police in Victoria have arrested two men because they think those men may know something about where Dezi Freeman went after the Porepunkah shootings. Freeman was the man who killed two police officers and hurt another.
After that, Freeman hid for months before police shot him dead. The investigation is like following a trail of footprints after a storm: detectives are trying to find every place he went and every person he may have met.
The case is not finished. A coroner is also looking at the deaths, which is a formal check to understand what happened and whether anything could have been done differently.
Analysis
New arrests
Police say detectives arrested two men, aged 48 and 45, at separate locations in north-east Victoria as part of Operation Summit, the investigation into Dezi Freeman’s movements after the Porepunkah shootings. The pair are expected to be interviewed, and police say the inquiry remains active, so they are not releasing further details yet.
The wider case
Freeman is described in the article as the man who shot and killed Det Leading Sen Const Neal Thompson, 59, and Sen Const Vadim De Waart-Hottart, 35, and injured a third officer after police entered his property near Porepunkah on 26 August with a search warrant. The officers had been responding to allegations involving a child under 16, including an alleged sexual assault and an attempt to involve a child in the production of child abuse material.
Freeman then allegedly fled into the bush heavily armed, triggering a seven-month manhunt across Victoria and the New South Wales border region. That search ended on 30 March, when he died after being shot by police on a remote property in Thologolong near Walwa.
Why this is resurfacing now
The arrests came one day after the coroner’s court held two directions hearings tied to the deaths of the officers and Freeman’s final shootout. No dates have been set for the hearings yet, though the article says both could happen next year. The timing suggests the investigation is still active and that police may still be trying to reconstruct Freeman’s movements and contacts while he was on the run.
Key points
- Police arrested two men, aged 48 and 45, at separate locations in north-east Victoria.
- The arrests are part of Operation Summit, the investigation into Freeman’s movements after the Porepunkah shootings.
- Freeman killed two police officers, injured a third, and later died after being shot by police in March.
- The arrests came a day after coroner’s court directions hearings connected to the deaths and the final shootout.
