When Desmond Freeman was located by police near a tiny country town not far from the banks of the Murray River, both sides had already rehearsed the likely outcome, and both sides stuck to the script.
Freeman, on the run for more than 200 days, was prepared for a shootout he knew he was always going to lose.
Shortly after he shot dead Senior Constable Vadim de Waart-Hottart, 35, and Detective Leading Senior Constable Neal Thompson, 59, and injured a third officer at a rural property in Porepunkah, he made a prophetic statement to his wife, Amalia.
“I love you and will see you in heaven.”
On August 26, 10 police had gone to the property to serve Freeman with a warrant over serious historical sex offences. This has been lost in the aftermath. Freeman was not a survivalist or a sovereign citizen. He was an accused child molester.
There had been discussions about calling in the specialist Critical Incident Response Team, but it was decided to conduct a local, low-key operation.
The reason general duties police are called first responders is that they respond to the situation at hand, which makes them vulnerable to an ambush as they approach with gun holstered. This is not America, where there is an assumption every suspect will be armed with a gun.
But when police were tipped off that Freeman was alive and hiding at a property near the town of Walwa (population 191), the odds were always on their side.
The Special Operations Group (known as the Sons of God) trains for sieges such as this and plans for every known contingency.
In its multimillion-dollar, secret indoor training facility, there are six container type constructions – coincidentally remarkably similar to Freeman’s rural hideout.
They use the containers to practice forced entries, setting off explosive charges and hostage extractions.
Before Monday’s operation the SOG scouted the property and drew up a plan, identifying every possible escape route, and placing armoured vehicles on the external perimeter to ram Freeman if he attempted to drive out.
The fact the armed offender was inside the container in relatively open country meant a forced entry would have been dismissed as too dangerous, leaving the only real chance of a non-lethal option in Freeman’s hands.
For three hours through dawn, he was encouraged to agree to a peaceful arrest. For three hours, he refused.
Before Freeman was called to surrender, at least eight specialist SOG snipers, trained to hit a target from up to a kilometre, were in place.
They were wearing top-level ballistic vests, camouflage gear and purpose-built helmets.
Freeman had a doona.
As planned, when he refused to surrender, police launched non-lethal distraction devices (known as flash bangs), forcing the suspect into the open.
Covered in his doona, he then showed he was armed, firing shots in the direction of a negotiator with Thompson’s police-issue Smith & Wesson semi-automatic pistol.
Several snipers fired simultaneously (they discharge their heavy calibre semi-automatic rifles at more than 10 shots a second) hitting him dozens of times.
Freeman had a death wish that was answered by the Sons of God. Publicly, police have said that this is now a matter for the coroner and the investigation is ongoing. Privately, they are relieved and delighted. That is why the labour-intensive and expensive manhunt for Freeman, called Taskforce Summit, continued when there were no real leads.
This had to be resolved, one way or the other.
For traumatised members at the Wangaratta station, where Neal Thompson was a much loved member, for the first time in seven months, there may be smiles.
For the families of the two dead officers and for the police force in general, Freeman’s death does not provide closure, but it does provide an answer.
Last week there was a memorial to recognise the 40th anniversary of the Russell Street bombing that cost Constable Angela Taylor her life.
Among those present were Carolina and Alain, the parents of Vadim de Waart-Hottart, who live in Belgium. They looked shattered and are still clearly in the depths of grieving. Now at least they will know the man who took their son’s life cannot hurt anyone else.
Detectives will now try to backtrack, to learn how long Freeman was at the property, how he managed to travel nearly 200 kilometres from Porepunkah to Walwa, and who harboured Australia’s most wanted man.
Then there is the question of whom, if anyone, may now be eligible for the million-dollar reward.
The absence of sightings of Freeman led police to believe it was likely he had killed himself.
On Monday, when he refused to surrender and left his hideout armed with a gun, he did just that. It is known as suicide by cop.
Read more on Dezi Freeman’s death:
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