In 2004, Dezi Freeman – then known as Desmond Filby – shot a stunning photograph of the Victorian High Country he called home.

The aerial image showed a glorious sunrise creeping across a valley beneath Mt Beauty, near the rural town of Porepunkah.

So striking was the image that Freeman, 56, claimed it was used in a tourism brochure.

Just over 20 years later, the region once beautifully captured by Freeman has turned into a warzone, as he allegedly killed two police officers and wounded a third with a homemade shotgun on Tuesday.

A 59-year-old detective and a 35-year-old senior constable were fatally shot during a shocking late-morning incident at the rural property, where ten officers arrived with a warrant for Freeman’s historical sex abuse charges.

SWAT teams have descended on the town of 1,000 residents, urging locals to stay indoors while the ‘heavily armed’ Freeman, who is knowledgeable about the bush, remains at large.

How did a talented photographer become a person who referred to police as ‘frigging Nazis’, ‘the Gestapo’, and ‘terrorist thugs’, and now stands accused of murdering two Victoria Police officers?

By 2020, Desmond Filby had changed his name to Dezi Bird Freeman, and on Facebook, he was known as Dezi Freedom, actively participating in the conspiracy group ‘Truth and Justice.’

Accused cop killer Dezi Freeman, seen here in 2018, ‘descended into madness’

He posted on Facebook that this image he took in 2004 was later used in a tourist brochure

Respected criminal psychologist Dr. Tim Watson-Munro told the Daily Mail that a combination of politics, poverty, and relentless exposure to the darkest parts of the internet might have driven Freeman over the edge.

Freeman is said to be a ‘sovereign citizen’ – a person who believes they are independent of government laws and authority – but Dr Watson-Munro said he could be described as a ‘cooker’ – a gullible person susceptible to conspiracy theories.

Dr Watson-Munro suspected Freeman was ‘unhinged, but not insane’ in a medico-legal sense.

‘He is bad, rather than mad,’ he said. 

‘I have not examined this guy, but I have examined people like him. I’ve had one or two sovereign citizens come across my desk,’ he said on Wednesday. 

‘The dynamics [of a cooker] are obvious but also complex if you consider it in the context of our current economic circumstances. There is a big schism between the haves and the have-nots. People are suffering economically, and inherent resentment and hostility develops towards the “system”.’

Dr Watson-Munro said people with ‘cooker’ tendencies proliferated when the world was hit by the Covid pandemic in 2020. 

Indeed, Freeman’s ‘sov citizen’ beliefs first bubbled to the surface early that year when he began sharing anti-vaccination and anti-abortion posts to the ‘Truth and Justice’ page around April.

Police converged on Porepunkah after Freeman allegedly killed two of their colleagues

Dezi Freeman has been described as a ‘cooker’ who is prone to conspiracy theories 

‘What you’re looking at here is a guy who’s descending into cooker-land, and I think the dynamics are feeling disenfranchised and disempowered,’ Dr Watson-Munro said.

‘People are feeling angry and resentful and then they link up with others on social media, who they may never meet in person but they all reinforce each other’s values and it goes from there. It gives [these feelings] legitimacy in their minds.’ 

Also in 2020, Freeman was charged and convicted in the Wangaratta Magistrates’ Court for speeding, refusing to provide an oral fluid sample for testing and using a mobile phone while driving.

His licence was cancelled for two years but he appealed the decision to the County Court, which dismissed the speeding charge but upheld the other convictions.

Freeman appealed the County Court decision to the Supreme Court where his application to have the matter reviewed was dismissed last November.

The Supreme Court heard Freeman’s ravings from his County Court appeal where he ‘disputed the enforceability of the laws under which he was charged and that he was acting in self-defence’.

Freeman also ‘suggested it was unfair’ he was charged with speeding when the police officers had travelled at a much greater speed themselves in order to catch up to him.

He then ‘suggested’ the police officer had arranged for one of her colleagues to cancel his firearms licence, which police denied.

Freeman was pushed to the ground by police amid a protest in Myrtleford in 2021

Police remain on the hunt for Freeman, who is said to be hiding in the bush

Dr Tim Watson-Munro fears these horrific incidents could ‘only get worse’

‘How was it fair that when I haven’t arrested you for the multitude of crimes you have committed and I haven’t exposed you or other police to the multitude of crimes they have committed, for the logs in their eyes, how is it fair that you go after me for the splinter in mine?’ Freeman said in his court rant.

‘What about equality of arms? What about equal treatment? What do you think about that? Do you even think about it? Are you capable of thinking about it? Or are you morally bankrupt?’

In his evidence, Freeman also referred to the police as ‘frigging Nazis’, ‘Gestapo’ and ‘terrorist thugs’.

During Covid, one of Freeman’s like-minded ‘sov cit’ mates posted on social media about the ‘disaster state Victoria and the rest of Australia is in’.

Freeman responded: ‘Hell awaits those traitor maggots. There is no escape. The clock is ticking!’

He unleashed again five years ago in response to another ‘sov cit’ being pulled over by police because his registration had expired by 17 days.

‘Sounds like they broke many laws in putting a DVO on you,’ he replied.

‘It is not valid, there is no DVO. Drive your car, ignore their bulls*** and call them out on every law they have broken.

‘Don’t let them hear any case against you until their crimes have been prosecuted. Arrest any criminal who breaks any laws in the court.

Freeman seen with his wife Mali and children on A Current Affair in 2018

‘Get the hell out of the corrupt magistrate’s courts and either go higher or shut down the case completely!’

In 2021, Freeman, together with his mate Jim Rech, attempted to privately charge then-Victorian Premier Dan Andrews with treason and fraud, and summoned him to Myrtleford Magistrates Court.

Mr Andrews wasn’t required to be present at court. The case was swiftly thrown out.

Before the case was heard, Channel Seven cameras captured footage of Freeman being tackled to the ground as he protested outside the court.

He shouted about ‘terrorist criminal filth’ as he was marched away by sheriffs.

‘Everyone knows that these scumbags are b***hurt because they’re obsessed with power,’ he said.

It was alleged Freeman had been ‘king-hit’ and thrown to the ground, sustaining facial injuries, during an alleged ‘unprovoked attack by these state-hired thugs’.

Supporters claimed police ‘frog-marched’ Freeman 400m through the centre of Myrtleford in an act of ‘public humiliation’.

It was claimed police ‘frogmarched’ Freeman through Myrtleford in 2021

Freeman’s wife Mali and her children have been in contact with police and are safe

It was also claimed Freeman’s wife Mali had sustained bruising to her arm while attempting to help her husband.

Dr Watson-Munro said this bewildering string of events is what led to Tuesday’s ‘tragic situation’.

He highlighted the December 2022 fatal shooting of two police officers in Wieambilla, Queensland, and the death of Tasmanian cop Keith Smith, who was shot in June this year while at a property to deliver a court-ordered repossession notice.

‘I don’t want to be the prophet of doom, and I hope I am wrong, but I anticipate we’re going to see a lot more of this,’ he said.

‘I would anticipate we’re going to see the police saying they dread having to approach these people, especially in rural Australia where it seems they hang out.’ 

Dr Watson-Munro pointed to internet misinformation that appears to originate in the United States – where freedom of speech and gun laws are looser than in Australia.

‘We live in a global village facilitated by the internet, social media, and so on, so everything is more or less in real time,’ he said.

‘So if there’s a cooker shooting in the Appalachians in the United States, we will hear about it here in five minutes. There’s no isolation for that sort of information any more.

‘It has a grave potential to radicalise people who are already angry, and grave potential to legitimise their views, leading to this sort of tragedy.’ 

At the time of publication, Freeman was still on the run in the High Country.

A Victoria Police air search continued on Wednesday, 24 hours after the fatal shooting

State Emergency Service rescue personnel joined the operation, with NSW police standing by 

Dr Watson-Munro said he would be in a precarious state of mind, having just endured a freezing night in torrential rain in the bush, with police on the chase.

‘It may be becoming overwhelming for him. You couldn’t rule out the possibility of him ending his own life. He wouldn’t be the first person to do that in this sort of situation.

‘It depends on a number of factors. He’s fatigued, he’s stressed… and as a consequence that could make him more irrational.

‘My heart goes out to the families of the deceased. I’ve done a lot of work with the police over the years and I can’t imagine what they’re going through.’