Tips-off pour in from the public in relation to fugitive Dezi Freeman

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Police in Victoria have again widened the search for fugitive gunman Dezi Freeman after receiving a remarkable amount of information from the public in the past 24 hours. It's now been a week since Freeman disappeared into the bush near Porepunkah after allegedly killing two police officers as they attempted to serve him a warrant.

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00:00While police helicopters continued their search for Desi Freeman from the skies above

00:07Pawpunkka, a convoy of police cars arrived in Wangaratta an hour away by road, blocking

00:14off suburban streets, knocking on doors and questioning a number of people.

00:19Later telling the ABC they were simply doing their groundwork and following up leads.

00:25Since calling for the public's help yesterday, police say the amount of information they've

00:30received has been encouraging.

00:32The amount of local people who have approached and given really good information to our information

00:37caravan in Bright has been remarkable.

00:40The warning to those who may be helping Desi Freeman clearly resonating amongst locals.

00:46If they consider themselves to be sovereign citizens as well so to speak, that's one thing.

00:50But to go and harbour a fugitive that has killed two police officers, we're going to track this

00:54guy down.

00:55He doesn't deserve to be in amongst our community, we need to shut him down.

00:59Former Detective Graeme Simfendorfer worked in the region for more than 10 years and knows

01:04how difficult the manhunt must be.

01:06It's hard to find people in the North East that want to be found that go missing, let

01:09alone trying to find someone that's on the run.

01:12And adding to the difficulty, he says the underlying trauma suffered by those officers conducting

01:17the search would be weighing heavily.

01:20Getting around those people that are parking their own grief for now because there's still

01:23the job to be done.

01:24So it's important to reach out to those people and let them know they're not alone, that they

01:28don't have to deal with this alone.

01:30The snow sitting on the hills above the search zone, a reminder of what businesses in town

01:35are missing.

01:36To not be able to take advantage of the bumper ski season is going to have a longer term impact

01:41on the town.

01:42The Bright Brewery has reduced its opening hours, unable to afford to keep staff on, with

01:47business down as much as 80%.

01:49Certainly people aren't really stopping in the area as they normally do when the conditions

01:54are like this.

01:56It's now been a week since the alleged gunman was last seen disappearing into bushland following

02:01the shooting here in Pawpunkka.

02:04But today's police activity in Wangaratta, more than 70 kilometres away, shows just how wide

02:11they're needing to cast their net for any information on the whereabouts of Desi Freeman.

02:16The

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