Inquests into Dezi Freeman and slain police officers to begin next week
Freeman, 56, fled into the dense alpine bushland of Mount Buffalo after murdering de Waart-Hottart, 35, and Thompson, 59, last year. The slain officers were part of a 10-person team that had arrived at a remote Porepunkah property Freeman was living on at the time to serve him with a warrant for historical sexual offences. The inquests into de Waart-Hottart and Thompson were postponed while Freeman remained at large and the murder investigations continued. In March, after seven months on the run, Freeman was shot
dead by heavily armed police who had tracked him to a remote hideout in Thologolong, near the NSW border. Police Chief Mike Bush confirmed on the day of the operation that Freeman’s death would be investigated; it is standard process for all police shootings to be probed by the coroner and police professional standards unit.
Dezi Freeman, inquest, de Waart-Hottart, Thompson, Mount Buffalo, Porepunkah, Thologolong, police shooting, coroner, police professional standards unit, warrant for historical sexual offences, NSW border
Next week?? Wow. They just gonna do more paperwork now.
So they found him and shot him and now they’re acting like it’s all a mystery? Coroner prob should’ve already had answers. Historical sexual offences warrant but somehow that’s not the main point to me.
Wait I thought de Waart-Hottart and Thompson were the ones who died because they were chasing him for the warrant. But it says the inquests were postponed while he was still on the run. Like… how long do you postpone grief? Also Mount Buffalo sounds like Australia but this is still basically US vibes of cops.
Not to be dramatic but they said “standard process” like that means it’s fair. Coroner and professional standards… sure. If she/he (Freeman) was already dead, why not just say what happened? Sounds like the timeline got stretched because paperwork and then bam, shooting in March and now they want inquests for the cops too. I bet he got treated worse than the system always does.