Family, friends and colleagues are coming together to salute a veteran officer who was gunned down just days away from retiring, as the hunt for his alleged killer continues.
Detective Leading Senior Constable Neal Thompson will be farewelled with full police honours at a funeral at the Victoria Police Academy on Monday.
The 59-year-old was one of two Victoria Police officers killed on August 26 while serving a warrant on Dezi Freeman on a property in Porepunkah, about 300km northeast of Melbourne.
The officer was looking forward to spending more time with the love of his life, Lisa, and already had a list of tasks to tackle in his free time.
His partner, with whom he built a home, will be among the mourners expected to pack the on-site chapel at the academy in Melbourne’s east to remember the man affectionately known as Thommo.
Det Lead Sen Const Thompson deserved the life he had planned for after his policing career, state police union boss Wayne Gatt said.
“That, after 38 years in the job and on the cusp of retirement, he made the decision to put others before himself, is a measure of the man we’ve lost,” Mr Gatt said.
“Neal was often the light side of an at-times dark profession. A character, a mainstay and a comfort to many.”
Det Lead Sen Const Thompson was a laid-back adventurer, revelling in the great outdoors and regularly spending time in nature with friends and colleagues.
He joined the police in 1987 and worked his way up to being a detective at the Major Fraud Squad and the State Crime Squad, before shifting to Wangaratta to join the Crime Investigation Unit in 2007.
Uniformed members of the force will form a guard of honour after Monday’s solemn service, as they did for Senior Constable Vadim de Waart-Hottart, who lost his life in the same incident.
An estimated 3000 mourners attended the 34-year-old’s funeral on Friday, triple the number expected.
Sen Const de Waart-Hottart, a smiling protector with an enduring fascination for the Batman comic book character, received a send-off worthy of a real-life superhero.
The pair’s alleged killer remains at large after fleeing into bushland almost two weeks ago.
Hundreds of officers continue to look for him in Victoria’s high country.
A $1 million reward has been offered for information leading to the arrest of Freeman, 56, who was last seen wearing dark green or khaki tracksuit pants, a dark green rain jacket, brown Blundstone boots and reading glasses.
It’s the largest reward in Victoria’s history to be offered for an arrest, rather than a conviction.
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