Oliver Peterson: Australian correspondent on the ongoing manhunt for Dezi Freeman after Porepunkah shooting

The wife of a gunman who allegedly killed two police officers in rural Victoria last week has urged her husband to surrender. 

Dezi Freeman is accused of opening fire on police officers, who were carrying out a raid at property in Porepunkah.

Australian correspondent Oliver Peterson says the police have been dealing with adverse weather conditions as the manhunt enters its seventh day.

LISTEN ABOVE

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
International Correspondence with Ends and Eye Insurance, Peace of Mind
for New Zealand Business. Oli Peters and six pur Perth
Live presenters with us. Hello, Wally are you there?

Speaker 2 (00:14):
Yes? Can you hear me? Hello?

Speaker 1 (00:15):
Hello Wally? Okay, what do we know about this car crash?

Speaker 2 (00:19):
Well, what we know is there was a car obviously
outside the Russian embassy there in Sydney's Eastern Suburbs this
morning and it raised suspicions of the police, the AFP
who came up to us the driver what he was doing,
and the next thing, he ran that car through the
front gates of the Russian embassy. Now he's a thirty
nine year old man. We don't know any more about

(00:40):
this particular individual or what his nationality may or may
not be. We know he has been taken into police
custody and the AFP say investigations are on going. But
as you've heard there in the world wise, it caused
quite a commotion in the Eastern Suburbs about eight o'clock
Sidney time this morning. The police officers had to draw
their guns and were heard shouting get out of the vehicle,

(01:02):
get out of the vehicle. Before this thirty nine year
old man has been taken into custody, so we wait
to find out more information what the motivation was and
what the target may have been.

Speaker 1 (01:11):
Okay, what's the latest with Dezzi Freeman.

Speaker 2 (01:14):
He's still on the run. This is the seventh day
that police are obviously searching for him. Now the weather
has improved, it's been hearing that it's been quite inclement
over the last few days, have been blizzards have been
done snow on the Mount Buffalo, which has made those
efforts to try and find him a rather challenging. But
police have now deployed four hundred and fifty people in

(01:36):
that search. So look, I have no other information, it's
just a hunch. Heathery obviously knows the area particularly well
and he's gone off greed. Whether he's got some sort
of bunker or he's got some way of obviously hiding
there in the countryside. This is obviously very concerning still
for locals, very concerning for the police force, and hopefully

(01:57):
he is found as soon as possible. But the seventh day,
the hunt continues. Massive amount of police resources being thrown
at this operation. The four hundred and fifty are they
all coppers coppers? There's some sees involved in this as well.
But there are four hundred and fifty police officers who
have been deployed to find.

Speaker 1 (02:12):
Him, probably all with weapons.

Speaker 2 (02:14):
Ah, I'm sure they can't wait to find him. That
sounded of it. He did to be dominant, didn't it.
But I mean you've imagine how angry you'd be right
now if you're a police officer searching for this bloke.

Speaker 1 (02:25):
Oh oh, geez, No, that's not what I was saying, Olie,
Like I wasn't saying they're going in with weapons to
seek vengeance. I mean he's armed, so they will be armed.
But I see where your brain went with that.

Speaker 2 (02:35):
Well, yeah, that's true. But yeah, that's right. I mean,
I mean that's it is. He set up another ambush,
though you know you don't know what this person's capable.

Speaker 1 (02:41):
Of, well exactly right, I mean yeah, I mean, geez,
I'll tell you what it's. So it's not exactly like
a situation we have here, but similar enough for you
to thank jeez, you don't want to be having a firefighters.
Now what's going on with his anti immigration protesters?

Speaker 2 (02:55):
So look, we had sort of ten thousand people roughly speaking,
across most of the capital cities, that's ten thousand. So
the anti immigration rallies the government's calling it, you know,
it has been hijacked as well by some of these
neo Nazi organizations because we've had a lot of extremism
on both sides of the political spectrum, if you like.

(03:15):
But this turned into in some city some pretty ugly scenes.
I'm not saying it's enough to get carried away with though,
Like I mean, you think about the populations of Australia's
major cities. If you're getting eight thousand people turning up
to a rally in Sydney, that's ditty squat. That's not
that many people. Fifteen thousand people in Adelaide short, it's
probably a bit more per capita. But let's not get

(03:36):
carried away with the fact that, yes, these rallies were
held over the weekend. They were not good. You know,
there's no tolerance for you know, racism in Australia that
there's also going to be tolerance for tolerance's sake. You know.
I just think that you know, there's some nutterers out there,
there's some people that decided that all get together in
the city and we saw a bit of argie Bargie
here in Perth as well. But you know, unfortunately it's happening,

(03:57):
and these things are happening in cities around the world
at the moment. But I think the numbers of people
that turned up for what our population is tiny, minuscule,
and they can go back into their holes and hide
and get on their keyboards and they can start abusing
people behind those little faceless images that they have on
Facebook and Instagram and all those social media platforms.

Speaker 1 (04:16):
Ollie, always good to talk to you. Thank you mate.
That's Oni Peterson, six pr PERS Live presenter. For more
from Heather Duplessy Allen Drave, listen live to news Talks.

Speaker 2 (04:25):
It'd be from four pm weekdays, or follow the podcast
on iHeartRadio.