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A man shot dead by specialist police during a three-hour stand-off at a remote bush property on the New South Wales-Victoria border on Monday has been formally identified as fugitive Dezi Freeman.
Victoria Police on Wednesday said forensic testing had confirmed Freeman’s identity, two days after he died in a hail of bullets after refusing to surrender and pointing a gun at police at a property in Thologolong on the banks of the Murray River.
“Please be advised that we have now formally identified the deceased from Monday’s police shooting in Thologolong as Desmond Freeman,” police said in a statement.
Police Chief Commissioner Mike Bush told reporters earlier this week he was fairly confident they had the right man, but DNA and fingerprint testing would be required to confirm his identity, largely due to the extent of the fatal injuries.
Freeman was shot more than 20 times by ground troops and snipers, and a Special Operations Group dog was also unleashed during the operation.
Freeman had been hiding at the property – a collection of shipping containers, broken down vehicles and other discarded waste near the small township of Walwa – for only a short period of time before police became aware of his whereabouts and laid in wait to confirm the fugitive was alone.
Investigators will now work backwards to establish how Freeman made his way from the dense bushland near Mount Buffalo more than 150 kilometres away to the state’s border, and who could have potentially assisted him.
They will also examine evidence seized from the crime scene, including two burner phones, as well as the impact the bushfires that swept through Walwa in January and their proximity to Freeman’s hiding spot.
Police investigators remained at the Thologolong property on Wednesday morning, as SES personnel packed up their gear and left in a ute just after 11am.
Three more plain-clothed police arrived in an unmarked SUV shortly after. The force’s blue mobile crime scene van remains at the encampment.
A dwindling number of journalists gathered by the banks of the Murray River, on the other side of the road. A lone man with a campervan sat on its banks enjoying the serenity, while the final scene of Australia’s biggest manhunt was cleaned up over a small ridge behind him.
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