Scene of confusion: Witness to Freeman raid tells his version of events

POREPUNKA property owner and eyewitness to the incident that involved the fatal shooting of two policemen allegedly by the late Dezi Freeman has given a detailed explanation on video of his version of the events.

Andrew Swift was renting the property to Freeman and his wife Mali and gave an on-site, firsthand account of the events in the video interview by YouTuber Dave Armstrong. It also appeared on Facebook.

On 26 August 2025, the remote Victorian property on the fringe of the Mt Buffalo National Park, became the scene of a tragic confrontation that shocked the nation.

In the video Mr Swift moves in and around Freeman’s caravan recounting what he witnessed, what he heard, and the events that followed, offering a perspective rarely heard publicly.

Police at the time warned Mr Swift not to interfere with the “search” of Freeman’s caravan, which was more of an attempt to break in while Freeman was inside with his wife and children. Mr Swift said police held a search warrant up against the caravan door window, and Freeman disputed it.

Police moved Mr Swift out of the annex and around to the back of the caravan. He continued to record it all on his phone video and at one stage got up when he heard tensions rise, thinking he might intervene to calm things down.

He was ordered to sit down and not long after that he heard a series of two or three firearm shots. He said Freeman apparently wanted to come out but police were still trying to force their way in. “I guess it was a kind of stalemate situation,” Mr Swift said.

After hearing the shots and hearing on the police radios that two officers were unaccounted for, one of the officers and Mr Swift took cover behind a nearby shed.

A few minutes later he heard a second lot of shots, one of which hit the corner of the shed, leaving a hole in the galvanized iron. Mr Swift said he thought he saw Freeman briefly.

When he and the officers with him went up the hill behind the old farm shed, there was more confusion and talk on the police radios “and it became clear there were still two officers that they couldn’t account for”.

At this stage Mr Swift stopped recording and told the police he would call Mali. She answered and confirmed she was in the bus. He then called Freeman, who indicated he was in the bus, but then said he was in the paddock below.

According to a report in the Australian newspaper last year, a neighbour of the Swifts named Naomi Wilson said family security footage had shown Mali and at least two of their three children meeting near the shootout scene by the Buckland River that flows across the front of the Swift property.

She said the footage, taken about half an hour after the ­August 26 tragedy, had been handed to police and potentially provided a large piece of the puzzle about how Ms Freeman evaded the eight surviving officers while carrying a young child.

Ms Wilson said Ms Freeman was picked up by a car, before being rushed from the area near where two police lay dead and ­another was seriously injured.

Ms Wilson said she was upset with the way some members of the Porepunkah and Bright commu­nities had sided against members of the force, including restricting access to shops and raising money for Mr Freeman’s family.