The search for a dangerous fugitive accused of killing two police officers has entered its fifth day and remains the priority for authorities amid “many other demands”.
The hunt for accused gunman Dezi Freeman resumed on Saturday with hundreds of police scouring the wilderness of Victoria’s high country amid strong winds and chilly conditions.
Freeman, 56, fled into bushland on Tuesday following a fatal confrontation at a property in Porepunkah, about 300km northeast of Melbourne.
He is accused of killing Detective Leading Senior Constable Neal Thompson, 59, and Senior Constable Vadim De Waart, 35.
Tough conditions have impacted search efforts with thunderstorms, lashings of rain and hail battering the rural town.
Temperatures plunged below 6C in the early hours of Saturday, with wind gusts of more than 60km/h in Porepunkah after blizzard-like conditions.
“The weather certainly doesn’t help but our people are very used to working in inclement conditions,” Chief Commissioner Mike Bush said on Friday.
“It doesn’t help us and I’m sure it doesn’t help the person we’re looking for,” he said.
Snow is predicted down to levels of just 700 metres.
More than 450 police officers have been deployed to Porepunkah as part of the search, which has included examining disused mines, caves and dugouts in and around the rural community.
The bid to locate Freeman remains the “number one priority” for police but Mr Bush acknowledged “many other demands”.
“That includes the protest activity this weekend,” he said.
A weekly pro-Palestine march, anti-immigration rallies and counter-demonstrations are planned in Melbourne.
“Our mission there will be to deploy a large resource also to ensure those people out protesting peacefully are kept safe,” Mr Bush said.
Freeman’s 42-year-old wife Mali and 15-year-old son were arrested on Thursday night following an operation at an address in Chandler Court near the town’s centre, before they were interviewed and released.
“There may or may not be charges that follow,” Mr Bush said.
Police helicopters and drones have been circling the area for days in the hope of catching a sign of the fugitive’s whereabouts.
Concerned friend Marlie Thomas said Freeman had become more withdrawn in the days before the fatal shootings.
She attends the local Our Lady of Snows Catholic church – alongside Freeman and his wife – which remains closed.
“We knew he was withdrawing a little bit,” she told AAP.
“We said, ‘we’ve got to keep a closer eye on him’.”
A weekly parkrun event in nearby Bright was cancelled on Saturday after police “recommended this is the best thing to do”, organisers said on social media.
Freeman, who has bush survival experience, was last seen in dark green tracksuit pants, a dark green rain jacket, Blundstone boots and reading glasses, police said.
He is believed to be a sovereign citizen, a follower of an ideology that rejects government authority and the rule of law.
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