Pallade Veneta - Australia offers reward for arrest of gunman after police killings

Police in the eastern state of Victoria said they were putting up the "life-changing" sum to assist their search for the 56-year-old fugitive, Desmond Freeman.

Freeman is accused of opening fire when police arrived at his home in Victoria with a search warrant.

The shooting killed 59-year-old detective Neal Thompson and 35-year-old senior constable Vadim De Waart. A third officer had surgery after being wounded in the lower body.

More than 450 police have been searching in vain for the alleged shooter, a reported conspiracy theorist who has bush survival skills, after he fled into dense forest by the small town of Porepunkah.

The area is scattered with mine shafts and caves.

Now, Victoria police say they are offering up to Aus$1 million (US$659,000) for information leading to Freeman's arrest -- a record sum in the state for the detention of a suspect.

"There is no doubt that Aus$1 million is a significant amount of money for anybody, and it will have lifelong changes to people's circumstances," said the Victoria police homicide squad's detective inspector Dean Thomas.

He denied the reward was an "act of desperation", telling reporters it was enticement for people who may have been reluctant to come forward so far.

"The last confirmed sighting we have of Freeman was on the day of the murders," Thomas said.

Police said they were pursuing various scenarios.

"At this time, there is nothing to indicate that Freeman is being assisted by a specific person, however given the difficult terrain and the requirement for various supplies this remains a possibility," Victoria police said in a separate statement.

- At large or dead -

"Police are also open to the possibilities that he remains at large alone or is dead as a result of self-harm."

Freeman was last seen wearing dark green tracksuit pants, a dark green rain jacket, brown boots and reading glasses.

"Police believe Freeman remains armed and advise members of the public not to approach him," they said.

As part of the search, police raided a property last week and briefly detained the gunman's wife Amalia Freeman and their teenage son.

Amalia Freeman has issued a public statement urging her husband to surrender to police.

Australian media say Freeman is a self-professed "sovereign citizen", referring to a movement that falsely believes it is not subject to laws passed by the government.

Police have not divulged the cause for the search warrant that 10 officers tried to execute on the day of the shooting.

But they say the police team at his home included members of the sexual offences and child investigation squad.

During the shootout, police fired at the suspect but apparently did not wound him, they said.

Deadly shootings are relatively rare in Australia, and police fatalities even rarer.

The latest gunshot death listed in a national memorial to fallen police showed one officer was shot and killed in 2023.

A ban on automatic and semi-automatic weapons has been in place in Australia since a 1996 mass shooting in Port Arthur, Tasmania, in which a lone gunman killed 35 people.

C.Conti--PV