Police overnight arrested the wife of Porepunkah shooting suspect Dezi Freeman, interviewing and releasing the 42-year-old woman and a 15-year-old boy “pending further inquiries” as the manhunt in Victoria’s high country continues.
As the massive police operation to find the alleged cop killer marked its fourth day on Friday, the Bureau of Meteorology issued an emergency warning for severe thunderstorms in Victoria’s northeast, including the town of Porepunkah.
Freeman allegedly shot and killed two police officers and injured a third on Tuesday morning, and on Friday police again appealed directly to the fugitive to turn himself in and bring the search to a safe end.
Victoria’s chief commissioner Mike Bush said police were “not leaving here until this person is in custody”.
“If that person is listening, it really is time to lay down your firearms and give yourself up so that we can all bring this to a safe conclusion, and this community can get back to what they love to do,” Bush said in a press conference on Friday afternoon.
He described the operation, which involves more than 450 officers, as “very professional and coordinated”. Alongside Australian federal police already in place, officers from New South Wales, South Australia and the ACT were on their way to the scene.
Bush said officers in the field had “every resource they require to locate the person responsible for this horrific homicide”.
“Our law enforcement colleagues and partners across Australia are leaning into this with us. They know the impact. It’s not just the Victoria police that are hurting at the moment, it’s the entire police family,” he said.
There have been no confirmed sightings of Freeman, 56, also known as Desmond Filby, since he allegedly shot the officers when they came to execute an arrest warrant on him at a rural property in Porepunkah on Tuesday.
Guardian Australia confirmed police raided a property in Porepunkah on Thursday night as they continued to search for Freeman, who vanished into the bush at the base of Mt Buffalo.
Bush said members of the public had reported alleged sightings of the suspect, which police were exploring.
He also said Freeman may have access to technology, making it unwise to share details of the exact search area.
Victoria police on Friday morning said they had “safely” arrested the woman and teenage boy in a Porepunkah address at about 8.40pm.
Police said the pair were taken into custody, interviewed and released, and that their arrests formed part of the investigation into the deaths of Det Leading Sen Const Neal Thompson, 59, and Sen Const Vadim De Waart, 35.
Freeman’s location remained unknown, police said.
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Victoria police have not confirmed how many properties in the area they have left to search or whether they suspect anyone of harbouring the so-called sovereign citizen or pseudolaw adherent.
The Thursday night raid was at least the third raid on a property in the Porepunkah area within 24 hours.
The house was quiet on Friday morning, but some residents appeared to be at home – with a note on the door saying “private”.
Two neighbours on the street told Guardian Australia they had not heard anything while the raid was conducted, although one said he saw flashing lights.
They said they did not know the people who lived at the property that police entered.
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, on Friday morning said federal authorities would offer Victoria “every support that is required” to assist in the search for Freeman and confirmed the Australian federal police’s elite tactical unit had joined the operation.
“What’s occurred here is that we have offered the premier, Jacinta Allan, every support that is required. And this is a full court press,” Albanese said on Channel Nine’s Today show.
“This guy clearly is dangerous. He’s on the run and we want him caught and we want people who are traumatised in that north-east community of Victoria to feel safe again.”
One of Freeman’s former neighbours told Guardian Australia he had an intimate knowledge of Mount Buffalo and the bush around it and that he used to spy on her, including with drones.
Loretta Quinn, who lived next to Freeman in Myrtleford between 2017 and 2019, on the opposite side of Mount Buffalo to the site of the fatal shooting, said the local bush was “full on” but Freeman knew it really well.
The Victoria police deputy commissioner of regional operations, Russell Barrett, on Thursday conceded the search for Freeman would be “protracted” and police were navigating “really difficult terrain”, which includes dense bushland, caves and old mine shafts.
“It’s complex terrain, and it’s not something that we, even with our specialist resources, can move through quickly, because it’s it is dangerous terrain as well,” he said.
Barrett also confirmed that the officers who came to arrest Freeman in Porepunkah on Tuesday were using a warrant relating to a matter that had been investigated by Victoria police’s sexual offences and child abuse investigation teams.
Police on Friday were also continuing to deal with deteriorating weather conditions that were likely to make the search for Freeman more difficult.
Bush said officers were used to working in bad weather – but admitted the weather “doesn’t help us – and I’m sure it doesn’t help the person we’re looking for”.
Porepunkah is280m above sea level but the slopes of Mt Buffalo rise sharply from the outskirts of the town, with the summit at 1,723m.
A large sign had been erected on the road to the mountain, warning motorists that Mt Buffalo national park was closed.
With additional reporting by Josh Butler