Porepunkah police shooting: Two people arrested in late-night raid

Two people were arrested as the Victoria police intensified their search for suspected gunman Dezi Freeman, who has been on the run in the high country since allegedly shooting dead two officers and injuring a third earlier this week.

On Thursday night, detectives and special operations police raided a house in Porepunkah, arresting a 42-year-old woman and a 15-year-old boy.

The pair were interviewed and later released “pending further inquiries”, police said. The operation was the third raid in the area in less than 24 hours.

Freeman, 56, also known as Desmond Filby, remains on the run after he disappeared into bushland at the base of Mount Buffalo after the fatal shooting on Tuesday.

Police deputy commissioner Russell Barrett has warned the search will be “protracted” as officers confront treacherous terrain of dense forest, caves and abandoned mine shafts. Bad weather, including snow showers forecast down to 600m, is expected to make the hunt even harder.

“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.

Prime minister Anthony Albanese confirmed that the Australian federal police’s elite tactical unit had joined the operation.

“This guy clearly is dangerous. He’s on the run and we want him caught,” he said, promising every federal resource needed to help traumatised communities in north-east Victoria.

The victims were identified as detective leading senior constable Neal Thompson, 59, and senior constable Vadim De Waart, 35. The warrant police had been executing at Freeman’s property related to an investigation by the sexual offences and child abuse command.

Meanwhile, accounts of Freeman’s past behaviour emerged as a former neighbour who lived beside him in Myrtleford between 2017 and 2019, alleged that he frequently trespassed across her property to access Mount Buffalo, spied on her family, and even used drones.

“It got to the point where I’d turn around and he would be standing there filming me,” Loretta Quinn told Guardian Australia.

“He had a drone that would come across, too, and he set up a little plastic cover, on the corner of the property, like a chicken coop and he would standing there spying on you too, looking who was coming and going,” she claimed.

Ms Quinn said she eventually sought a personal safety intervention order against him, with court records showing Freeman was charged with breaching such an order in 2019, though the charge was later withdrawn.

She also recalled his hunting activities with his wife, saying he knew the mountain’s remote areas “exceptionally well” and would be familiar with old caves and mine shafts.

Mount Buffalo National Park has been closed as the search continues. Ms Quin said she is staying locked inside her home and ‘hopefully they catch him soon’.”