Part 1
Jump to: Transcript as text | The MSM story | Furthermore
Video source, the Living Free Movement video channel.
Part 2 now published at https://www.youtube.com/live/7K7wucOXg_w?si=TGwVWB0FLsfGJMtW
Here is the AI generated transcript of Part 1 with all timestamps removed (from the transcript on the video):
Hi guys, my name is David Armstrong. I’ve uh been asked to speak about the Desi Freeman incident on the 26th of August uh by the property owners of uh where the shooting occurred up in Panka.
Um, Andrew and Rebecca Swift attended the Living Free Festival a couple of days before this occurred and I briefly met them there and then they’ve reached out afterwards. The main reason that they’ve reached out to me is that they don’t have trust in the mainstream media especially with all the lies that have been put out um and uh all the conspiracies that have been put out by all different people. I went up to the property um approximately seven or eight weeks after the shooting. Uh the Rebecca and Andy had been back on the property uh for a couple of weeks, but no one had actually been down and tidied up or had a look at the the site where it all occurred. So, we went down and we we filmed some information there. Um and Andy, who’s the the property owner, he was actually there as an eyewitness on the day. So, he’s the only um adult that’s outside of the family and outside of the police who was an eyewitness and he uh tells his story directly to me.
I’ve I’ve had the opportunity to meet other uh family members, other friends, and hear different parts of the story. And this is the other side of the story that hasn’t been told. And so the reason that we’re going to tell this is to make sure that the untold part of the story that leads up to all of this is told accurately and the people that know the situation best can share their story without having to use mainstream media who have lied and continued to to put out false uh information the whole way through.
Uh there’s a lot of information that that is really difficult to share. It’s a complex thing that’s gone across many years that’s built up to this situation. No one that I’ve spoken to has suggested that uh Desi did not kill the police, the two police officers on that day. It’s more the events that led to this. Was it preventable? Are there other people that have blood on their hands? Um, and I think after seeing this myself and having a look at all the information, I think that there should be a full investigation as to how this all occurred and could it have been prevented. So, this is the information.
We’re going to release it across several parts. The first part being the eyewitness of Andrew who was there on the day or Andy um who actually helped a police officer uh who was injured and a range of different things. So it’ll be his story as we go around the property.
The reason we’ve held off on sharing a lot of this information is based on the police harassment and the media lies and their harassment as well. Um, a lot of the community up there have been scared to share the information that’s going to be shared over these next few parts and uh, their concern has been valid from what I’ve seen. Some of them have had their houses raided um, in quite horrific situations that they’ve gone through and a lot of them have got a lot of trauma based on the events that have occurred.
the information that’s been shared to me. I’m very honored that they’ve entrusted me to share this information and we’ll be telling it as truthful and honestly as we can.
All right, Andrew.
Dave, good day, Dave. Good to meet you. Nice to finally meet you. Yeah.
So, Andrew, you’re the property owner here.
Yep. My wife and Rebecca own the property. Yeah. Um, and we’ve been here for about 8 years. Yeah.
And um, yeah, it’s pretty quiet sort of place. Magic property.
Yeah. It’s pretty beautiful. Pretty blessed to to live and work on on a piece of land like this.
Yeah. And so you’ve been here for about eight years, you said?
Yeah, eight years. Um, we’d been looking for a block of land to um, you know, just do a bit of organic farming and sort of um, be a bit of a a place for community together and all of the rest. So, it’s sort of been a bit of a a purpose or a dream of ours. Yeah.
And you’ve got a few people that have been staying on the property and and the Freemans were
Yeah. The Freeman’s with that. We also have a wolfing arrangement. So, um you know, people can come and do a bit of work on the property. Sort of a labor exchange type of thing. And um initially, yeah, the Freeman’s came here about three and a half, four years ago. um uh with you know to do a little bit of work but they had no place to live at the time either. So initially they just came with a bus that Desi had built with his brother. Um and they parked that here and then um they not able to get a place. They had to move out of their rental place. Um and so they ended up um staying here. Originally it was going to just be short-term till I found somewhere else to live. Um they ended up being here for 4 years. Yeah. And you’ve known Desi for a while. Yeah.
Yeah. I knew Desi back in the 90s. Um I grew up in the area and Desi spent a bit of time sort of uh doing a lot of photography around here and doing buffalo stuff. Um and we sort of connected on sort of I was a bit arty I suppose and Desi was a bit creative with his photography and we both spent time at the bush um doing different things but we sort of connected on that sort of the nature or the bush type type stuff. So I knew sort of Desi in the background but you know living in a small country town sort of tend to get to know everyone. So yeah we just have a chat together and you know it’s just a familiar sort of person that that I I that I knew and always sort of said good day to.
And so on the 26th of August, there was a a major event here which you’re a witness to. And we’re going to go around the property and we’re going to have a look and you’re going to share a little bit of information that may not be well known or publicly known as to what occurred in that time and share a little bit of information what you know about Desi and Marley and and the family.
because I’ve been away then I thought okay about 9:30 I went into the office to check the emails and um then got a call from Marley. Yeah.
We’ll we’ll head down. So you were in the office at the time. Yes. Yeah.
And you’d been up at the Living Free Festival.
Yeah. We’ve been up at the Living Free Festival where we met heaps of awesome people including yourself, Dave. And um yeah, we came back quite inspired um because a lot of the speakers who were there really resonated with with where we were coming from. Yeah.
Um and uh yeah, we little did we know we’d be thrown in the deep end. Um you know, a matter of you know, 15 hours later and coming back from the festival, all of this sort of took place. Yeah.
Yeah. It’s still pretty hard to get our head heads around to come to terms with cuz the uh effects of that morning um still resonate you know strongly with with us and our families but also the broader community as well. Um yeah, but you know this is all part of the process of sort of trying to understand what h what happened and why it happened like I said because it certainly wasn’t something that we were expecting because the truth of what happened that morning uh I mean it was simply in my head at the time but it sort of puts a totally different perspective on what actually went on on the day from the media. your perspective. Um and and and no element of what went on on that morning actually has really been um put out by the media. And we’ve sort of been personally concerned that any truth that has gone out to the to that mainstream media has been um distorted in in in ways which um aren’t necessarily reflective of any of the truth or what led up to the event and what happened subsequently. So um yeah, it’s been pretty important to get my part of the story out there. Um um as simple as it is cuz it you know it opens up lots of different questions you know about how things may have been handled and um subsequently how it was portrayed by the mainstream media.
Yeah.
So you were you’ve got a little office over here which we’re going to have a look at. So you were there on that morning and then you got a call from Marley. you were unaware that the police had arrived.
Yeah. So, I’d like I said, I’d just been um running around just doing the normal things, you know, uh doing the firewood, checking order, and then trying to get back into into work after being away for a week. So, it’s my little office just over here.
Um, this is our little power generator plant, backup generator and solar array here. I sort of like to have my office away from from house. So, uh, I do heritage work. I’m a heritage advisor, do graphic design and so on. And so I was sort of sitting here in my office um actually trying to look at um how to uh uh pay a toll road in Sydney when we inadvertently took a toll road and I was just on the line and then Marley phoned that um it’s at 10:00 and I I by the time I fumbled around with the phone I actually missed her call. So I called her back straight away and she was obviously distressed and she said, “Andy, come down to the bus. The police are here and they’ve surrounded the bus and they’re trying to get in.”
So um I grabbed my phone and went straight to the bus um to try and see if there’s anything I could do to help you know and Desi who seemed to be obviously under distress. And it was a cold morning. It was overcast. And um yeah, I just grabbed my phone and went straight down there.
So that’s probably the the first narrative that’s been put out there is that there was cameras on the front of the property. Desi was aware the police were coming and that he ambushed them. That’s that’s um true or not true?
Yeah. No, that’s definitely not true. Um when I did get down to the bus, the police were had surrounded the bus. There was one police four-wheel drive in a paddock next door and um yeah, there was no preempting of the police. Yeah, not at all. And and hearing that from the media on the first couple of days of Desi ambush the police and knowing that that was it was almost a flip around. The police ambushed. From what I could see, the police had ambushed ambushed the Freeman’s that morning.
Yeah. And they were he was inside the bus with Marley, his wife, and two and a half year old.
So the three of them were in the bus. We joined directly to the mountain park and on our lower side, our boundary is on the back river. Okay.
So Beck, nice to meet you again.
So, you’re uh you’re going to show us around the property as well.
Yep. We’ll go for a walk and and check it out. So, um yeah. So, at the morning, I guess probably only minutes after the police had got here, walking down through here and I could see one police all driving paddock over there. It’s parked on the other side of our fence and neighbor’s property and I could hear um hear the police moving around and and um Freeman’s inside the bus um you know obviously distressed by what was going on. So as I got through this last lot row of pajas um I was trying to make a direct line as possible to get there as quickly as possible.
So I got to here and I could see uh the police some of the police at the front of the of the bus area where there’s an entryway under sort of an awning that forms a sort of living area for the Freeman’s and um and then I could see police running around both police in uniform but also plain clothes police and they all had um their jackets on with their their cameras and and they all had sort of their sidearms on as well. Um, so yeah, I just made a beeline to their entryway just to find out what was going on. Yeah.
Do you know if all their cameras were on?
Look, I saw I noticed their cameras on cuz I saw a little red light flashing intermittently and then there was a beep every now and again. Yeah.
So, their cameras, the ones I are definitely on.
Yep. And by this stage, I had my phone on and I was filming as I was walking down. So I was just making sure I was recording as I approached the scene. Yeah.
Um just so that I sort of also had a record of what what was happening and unfolding.
And the police have confiscated that footage.
Yeah. They’ve confiscated my whole phone and I haven’t been able to get it back at this stage.
So, the Freeman’s had their two vehicles which we just walked past parked front of the bus here.
Um, and it’s a bit of a messy scene now, but Marley and Freeman’s kept a really clean living space. They were quite proud of their living area. Um, Desi had done a little bit of landscaping and they kept the area mown and very neat. Um, Marley grew grew herbs and stuff and and Marley was a great cook and so she kept a very neat kitchen. And one of the challenging things is hearing the media story about how the media broke into our property and took took took pictures of the place and and they showed the mess and implied that the mess was, you know, a result of the unstable nature of Desi, which was not the case because the place was neat as a pin and the mess that was created was by the the subsequent um searches by the police, you know, under under search warrant and or part of the initial search. So what we’re seeing is the mess left by you know by so so this is fairly you know untouched since um since that event on 26 um we’ve Marley and us and other people have come to get things for Marley and the boys personal items and we’ve removed the two vehicles um just in the last couple of days only because um there’s going to be a big working bee here tomorrow and we just wanted to create a bit of space just so that that can happen. And so after two months, you know, we could start cleaning up this space because the police only removed spas cameras which were on that tree bit over a week, maybe two weeks ago.
Um, so we’ve only really been able to feel safe in coming back to this place and start cleaning up sort of, you know, in the last week or so really.
And you guys stayed off the property for some time as well afterwards as well, didn’t you?
Yeah, we didn’t get back. We were um it was about two and a half weeks before we could get back on.
Yeah. um you know it was described the police said it was a crime scene up until a certain point up until um Wednesday the 10th or whatever it was. Um and so there was when we weren’t told that it wasn’t a crime scene. So there’s a probably a period of about 24 hours or maybe a bit longer where the media knew that place wasn’t a crime scene, but we hadn’t been told and so the media came in and trespassed and took a heap of photos and video footage of, you know, the mess that was here. And that’s when the sort of the story was portrayed that, you know, they lived in squalor and all of that sort of stuff.
So the police had access to the property unhindered for two and a half weeks. after that event to be able to undertake any of their investigations um do any subsequent searches of of anything on the property.
Yeah. Including your um your house as well.
We we basically surrendered it to them for two and a half weeks. I I think at about two week mark we had started to ask we had put some requests in writing could we please come back to grab some clothes a few essential things work related stuff but they’d said we couldn’t come back um and they held that line firmly um then when we discovered that the media had actually been in here without a permission um we we put another letter in writing to them letting them know that that had happened. Why were the media allowed in here? We weren’t.
Um, so it was I think it was actually about 48 hours from when the media probably came in to when they finally allowed us to come back in.
Um, so it was about two and a half weeks when we got back. Um, we didn’t move back in straight away. We couldn’t move back in straight away because of what had been done to the place.
So coming back to that warning, you’ve come down Andrew and then you’ve got to around here or Yeah, I came up to the doorway here.
There were police here and I um said to the police um trespassing unless you’ve got a warrant um and I want you to leave.
Um, and in that they there was but there was a whole lot of clamor going on and my words really felt dwarfed by what what was happening. There were there was a group of probably five police in in at the front of the bus in here. And there were also I could hear police trying to get in around the back of the bus. And then I could hear the Freeman’s trying to under high anxiety trying to sort of, you know, talk to the police and make some sense about what was going on.
Uh and then one of the police officers said that they do have a warrant.
Um, and they showed me a bit of paper, but the whole scene I was in in no state to sort of look at what the details of the warrant and take stock of the warrant and even understand the warrant.
And there’s even if I’d said this is not valid, there’s no way I could have stopped. You know, there were about 10 police here, there’s no way I could have stopped that. So then one of the police officers, I can’t recall if he grabbed me, but he he threatened to say that if I was to um uh interfere with this this this this uh police search or raid or whatever it was that I’d be arrested.
um he may have grabbed me on the shoulders or knife, but anyway, I said I just said to him that I’d remain as a witness and I still continued filming.
Um but I sort of pushed back from this area. Um but I wanted to be a witness to what was going on because I could hear, you know, the Freeman’s under distress going on in the awning. So I then walked around, came in under the awning from the other way because I was blocked from being this way. So I walked um down here.
And so I came up to this side of the um to to to here and I could see um the police trying to get into the bus.
Um and I saw police officers with a crowbar here talk um trying to you know get the Freeman’s out of the bus and they grabbed this log and they were trying to purchase with the crowbar get leverage on on the door to get into the bus and so the whole time I was the brief time that I was here I could see you know the police trying to force open the bus, try to get the Freeman’s out of the bus. Um they were trying to serve this warrant on Desi. Um and I could just um Himali and Desi and young M and a half-year-old son just um just totally totally stressed. But Desi was Desi was really quite together, although heightened in anxiety about asking right questions. And at one point, they held the warrant up to the window and they explained what the warrant was. And Desi just was basically saying it was um, you know, not valid or a load of nonsense and what what what what was all this really all about.
I then was asked to to move. The police took me out of this space and two officers accompanied me. So I um I think I went out around the back and I sat around this is probably after about 10 minutes maybe after I got here. Um I was then escorted out and then around and asked to sit behind the bus for the rest of for at least another 10 or so minutes.
Yeah.
All right. So, so are we allowed to have a look in the bus or Sure. Yeah.
So, they’ve busted their way in here.
Um, from media reports, they pulled out the the glass here and jumped through.
And then we don’t really know too much about what occurred in here other than that the Freemans were barricaded in here while the police were trying to get in and they were trying to get in around all sides of the bus. So there was a group of about five at the door but they’re also police trying to you know peer in windows and get in other windows and so on.
So certainly a heightened sense of stress that the Freemans were going through while being surrounded, you know, by police literally trying to to to break into this this space. Yeah.
You know, with the three of the Freeman’s in here. Yeah.
And so I guess you heard gunshots from around the corner.
Yeah. So, I I I was sitting around the back and we can go around the back and I’ll show you where I was sitting. But I I was probably sitting around there for at least 10 minutes, maybe 15 minutes before the first gunshots. Okay.
And do we know where the police got shot at all?
We know that one was shot somewhere here. Yeah.
But I didn’t see any of this. And then there’s another one was shot somewhere around there.
Okay. the two that were were were killed here and there and I’m not sure where the injured policeman was shot.
Okay. He there was there were two periods of gunshots.
Um there’s the first one and then maybe another five minutes later there was the second lot. I don’t recall where it was two or three shots in that first lot.
Um and and maybe two again maybe two or three in second shot second group of shots. So, we don’t know who fired first and we do we know if the police fired their weapons as well.
Initially, I thought it was the the first group of shots I heard. I initially I thought it was the police um just because of the way they were behaving. um just aggress it just appeared aggressive. And so initially I thought it was it was the police. Um but then through listening to the radios I realized it wasn’t the police.
So, I mean, just to get a sense of, you know, the neatness of how they lived, you know, it’s pretty, I mean, despite the mess made by the police, it’s pretty organized. Um, and, you know, they were sort of, you know, house proud tenants. And although we didn’t expect them to be here for as long as they were, you know, for nearly four years, um they did, you know, respect their own living space and respect um the surrounding area that we allowed them to, you know, to stay at.
Yeah. So again, despite what the media have subsequently said, you know, I this is a good neat, you know, camp setup. So
So on the day um after I was removed from under from their from the kitchen area or in their living area I actually sat just sat down here this police officer there and another one there. And I was just holding my phone up just so I could pick up the dialogue that was going on in the bus, but I was also filming the police officers um while I had my phone up. So, I was just I don’t know why, but I was just filming their faces.
One of the younger female officers felt uncomfortable with that. I remember her putting sunglasses on whether she felt uncomfortable about the operation or uncomfortable being filmed. Um I’m not sure but so I was probably sitting here for probably 5 to 10 minutes. Um at one point there was a heightened sense of anxiety coming from the bus. So, I got up and I um wanted to I I just wanted to help the situation or diffuse the situation. Um I got to here and then one of the police officers sort of um asked me to sit down again um because there’s still, you know, the police are still trying to get into the bus. So, I just Oh, I mean, I didn’t want to get arrested, obviously, and I didn’t want to um um cause any more trouble. So, I came back and sat down and still continued filming.
And then probably not long after that, um there was a series of shots, maybe two or three shots, um immediate. Could you could you hear Desi at all yelling out saying that he had a firearm and not to enter or or any of those sorts of things?
No, I didn’t. Um I was here again I was relying on the phone to capture the pile.
Um I was sort of hearing that that they were wanting to come out but the police were still trying to force it away. Um, and it sort of seemed to have a bit of a stalemate situation.
Um, yeah. So, I didn’t hear any sort of warning about firearms or anything. And had I have heard, you know, had, you know, Desi might have mentioned if he if he had had a firearm, I then wouldn’t have thought those initial shots were from um, Desi. Um but just from the reaction of the police and then starting to hear on their radios um they couldn’t account for the the police officers um I realized that perhaps it was Desi that had fired those shots. Yeah.
And so after those that first group of shots, we actually the one of the police officers I was with um we then went behind this shed up here and took took um took uh cover, I suppose.
And where did you see the rest of the police go? because there’s a lot of questions around there being 10 police and then Desi and and Marley and um the young child being able to to leave the bus.
Um where were the rest of the police?
Did they run after the first lot of gunshot?
Yeah. So after the first lot of gunshots, we all pulled back. So police officer I was with pulled back and then a number of police then went up behind this shed up up behind us up here. Um so that was after the first lot of shots.
So I I came and sat down here and I remember squatting down here and then I had a police officer here.
I think I checked my phone to make sure it was still recording. I stopped and started and then I was still holding my phone up and I was watching the police up here behind the shed. still this police officer here. And then I heard above the shots and I looked up and I thought because you can’t see through much through here, but I thought I caught a glimpse of Desi just then ducking back away.
And so and again on the day I don’t fully recall.
Um, however, coming back to the scene when I looked up or turned and saw Desi, um, we’ve got he must have tried to, um, take a shot at that other police officer who was standing next to me, but again, I wasn’t focused on that. And so there’s a just a single shot here that um the police have have recorded which that wasn’t there before.
So it’s clear that’s not a a shotgun. Yeah. Definitely not shot. Yeah.
So that formed as you know the second lot of shots which happened you know maybe about 5 minutes afterwards.
And so when when that happened, we the police officer I was with and I then went up to all the other other officers up behind this shed up here and there was even more confusion and talk on the police radios and it became clear that they were definitely still try there were two officers that they couldn’t account for.
Was there screaming or not necessarily screaming, but there was confusion about who was in the bus and who was still in the bus and whether the Freeman’s are in the bus or whether they’re injured police bus. So, at this stage, I stopped filming. I said to the police I was with, I’m going to call I’m going to call Marley and find out if she’s still in the bus. So, I then stopped filming and I called Marley and and she answered the phone and I said, “Marley, are you in the bus?” Cuz I think just prior to that, no one was really trying to clarify people’s positions other than through radios. So, I at one point I yelled out, you know, Desi, don’t be a dick. Just just be calm or whatever.
And then at another point, I was yelling out, “Who’s in the bus? Marley, Desi, are you in the bus? Are you in the bus?” I was just trying to yell out and all to get to get a verbal response just to clarify what was going on because I I didn’t understand who was where and the police didn’t seem to understand. So I was trying to establish who was actually in the bus and where people were so that that we could you know either attend to get medical help or or not get medical help. And then I phoned Desi and Desi answered and I said Desi are you in the bus? Where are you?
And on one hand he says, “I’m in the bus.” And then in the other hand he says, “No, he’s he’s down in the hazelnut or down at the hearts or down in the paddock below.” But he definitely wasn’t with Marley.
Um and then I can’t remember whether I hung up or he hung up and and I was right next to the police still and there was still confusion going on.
I then said to one of the police officers like it was out of my control.
I could not help the Freeman’s. So, I gave the police Desi’s number so that they could at least try and communicate Desi and understand where he was because I couldn’t get an answer from him. Um, and then so I was up here by this stage.
So I was making the phone calls from here and there were groups of police behind the shed there.
So I was, you know, trying to establish what was going on in the bus cuz the police didn’t necessarily seem to know.
And so then I um had I I then started talking to the police once I gave this number. Then we realized that there was um injured police officers or at least one injured police officer. So I um said, “Okay, well the gate was locked. Our main gate was locked up over in that direction about 150 meters away.” I said, “Someone’s injured. We’ve got to be able to get an ambulance in.” So I said, “I’m going to go and open the gate so we can, you know, get medical assistance.” So I said to the police, “Okay, I’m going to go. I’m going to open the gate. Then I’m going to bring a vehicle back so that we can carry anyone injured and get them to an ambulance or get an ambulance here.” So I then left on foot on my own, went up to the to the gate up there. The gate was locked and there’s a pin code to open it and there were three three uh police cars at the gate. I think they were unmarked police cars. And there were a couple of police officers there, maybe three or four. And I said to the police, we’ve got someone injured. I need to open this gate so we can get an ambulance in or get get medical help to, you know, the injured police officers. Um, and the gate’s pretty temperamental um if I’m pushing the keypad. So, they were holding on to the gate trying to force it open. I said, “Just don’t touch it. Just let me open it.” So, I pushed the pin code rather open the gate. Um, and then I said to the police, I’m just going the police up at the gates. I was going to get a vehicle um to pick up the rescued officer to pick up the injured officer. I stopped saw my daughter at the house on the way um and then picked up a a little farm Kabota side by side thing and then drove it back down here. I drove it to that spot there and then by the time I got back um the injured officer had been brought up to the shed. He was
He was um he was right here. And so when I came up with the Kabota, I saw that he he’d been injured. He was wearing dark colored pants, but you could tell they were all wet from from from from blood from a gunshot somewhere down on his lower half. And I could tell because of his lower injury, I wouldn’t be able to get him into the Kabota because it’s sort of an upright vehicle. So, I then said to the police, “All right, I’m going to go and get a more suitable um uh vehicle and uh so we can get this guy in and get him to the ambulance.” So, I then drove the boat up to the far end back to my office where my Hilux twin uh dual uh twin cab Hilux is parked. I had all my work gear on the back, all my survey gear. So, I just pushed that onto the ground and then came back down with my Hilux and I went down my windows when I was coming back down and I said to the police, I’m going to because we didn’t know where Desi was and if by chance he might take another um shot. I then d said to the police, I’m going to park the vehicle in such a way that we can load the injured officer on where he’s protected. So,
I drove my vehicle here and I got to a point where I could we could safely open the back door of the vehicle and then I got out of the front the back and got open up the back of the vehicle and got into the back seat and two police officers um helped the injured officer to the back seat and I said to the police, I’m just going to grab or the injured officer, I’m going to grab you by your belt and your vest. And I lifted the injured officer into the back seat and then closed the doors and then I came back around to the front of the vehicle and I at some point I because I’ve done first aid training I said to the injured officer I said my name’s Andrew I’ve been trained in first aid which is what they teach you to do I said what’s your name just to establish um just create peace of mind in this injured police officer that he could trust me, you know, establish trust.
So, his name was, you know, how much pain you in? What’s your level of pain?
Explained he was injured, but his pain level wasn’t super bad.
Uh, and then I said to the other police officers here, I said, “There’s still cars blocking blocking the road. I’m going to need those moved.” I said, “Do you guys have UHF radio?” Cuz I had UHF radio in a truck. I needed to be able to communicate with those police as I was getting this guy to the ambulance to the ambulance.
Um, they said, uh, one of the police officers hand me a set of car keys. He said, “These are the car keys for There’s a car at the gate.
So, I grabbed this set of police vehicle car keys, established trust with obviously all of them, and I got into the car with the car keys in the back, no other police officer.
And then I drove um and I was talking on the way cuz I had to go for a bumpy paddock. I was just saying, “Look, I’ve got to put it in four drive. It’s going to be a little bit bumpy, but I’ll get you to the ambulance shortly.” Drove across the pile of tiles and then up to the gate.
And then at the gate and there were police at the gate and I pulled off to the side and I’ve got my windows down and I’m I’m sort of yelling out, I’ve got an injured officer in the car.
I need these cars removed, these police vehicles removed so I could get him to the ambulance.
Um, I got I got out of the car with the keys. I said something along the lines of these are the keys for this front vehicle. Um, can you guys move it or I’ll move it out of the way? Um, they took the keys um and they sort of fumbled around and moved the the vehicles out of the way. Then I was able to get back in the car and um drive down rain track.
Um there’s a second lot of police blocking the road as I went down and I was just yelling out out of the vehicle.
I’ve got an injured officer in my vehicle. I need to get to the ambulance.
I’ve been told by these police that there was an ambulance somewhere at the bottom of rain track. So that’s where I was heading. Um and then when I got down to the bottom rain track, I saw a couple police vehicles down there and and an ambulance. So, as I drove and approached the ambulance, I was sort of signaling out the window that I was going to come around to the back of the ambulance so that we could load the injured officer onto the stretch of trolley.
Parked around the back in such a way that we could get off onto the trolley and into the ambulance. But I let the paramedics take over. I just moved my car seat forward so they could get in and get get him onto the trolley.
So once the injured officer was unloaded, I said to um one of the police officers there that um that when I left here, I made it clear that I would come back and get any further that I’d get any further injured officers back to the ambulance.
Um um and and so I said that to the guys down there and they said I just said hold on a minute and then they came back and said okay we’ll get and we’ll escort you back onto the property. So there’s a police escort got halfway back up rain track and then the police stopped us and then they said um look can you just go back and turn around. Um uh so obviously I wasn’t needed to come back to get anyone else out. Obviously they um realized perhaps that the two other officers were deceased by that stage and that um there was no point at trying to get them to to an ambulance or whatever. So, I just met some police up at the gate where I had to turn around and then I told them who was left on the property. Um, and I said my daughter was at the house and I was just giving some other details to the police. Then after I’d done that, um, I was asked to go back down to the bottom of Rainer track and then I was instructed to, um, that I have to go back to the Bright Police Station to give a statement.
So, obviously pretty emotional, full-on situation for yourself, but it sounds like you were a pretty calm and collected and in a place that was full of chaos. And that’s certainly not what was put out in the media either. And I’ve heard nothing about this and the actions that you took on that day.
I I know that the media has put articles out about you guys and and you know Beck yourself as well but this is a very different story and you know I don’t like throwing around words like heroic but it sounds like that were those actions on the day and that your your actions very much assisted the police and assisted Pete to get to help and there was um not a lot of clear heads helping in the same way. Is that an accurate representation?
Um it is I suppose. Um, I just for whatever reason responded. Maybe because I was a property owner, maybe because I’m can work in difficult situations under pressure. it.
Um, yeah, I just felt like I had a level of trust with the police officers that were here to be able to take control and to, you know, obviously once we realized that there were injured police officers.
Um, and there was a way to be able to help, you know, the injured officer that there was a level of trust and there was also a level of distress among some of the younger officers here that, you know, that some of their colleagues had been shot.
So um I was able just to step into that set of circumstances that offer you know the assistance that I did do wasn’t anything I planned to do but it was just set of circumstances that I probably fell into and was able to take responsibility of. I wasn’t able to step between the Freemans and the police to start with and calm that situation and I tried to do that.
But I suppose in this instance where there was an injured officer had to go to an ambulance that was something I could take control of.
Um so I so I did.
Yeah. Can I add because you didn’t say it but I think you must have been pretty levelheaded for that. Um there was an officer who got in the car with you to go back to the station afterwards as well.
Yeah. So after I went down to the after I went left the property for the for the last time for two and a half weeks and um you know that there was more and more police were arriving by the minute and my daughter eldest daughter was giving a statement in her car to one of the police officers. I was asked to go back to the police station and give a statement.
So I’m in my Hilux which has got blood all over the back seat and they allocated a senior constable to me a local chap to to come to take him back to the Bright Police Station in my car so I could give a statement. And I sort of said to the police officer next to me, I said, “Look, you know, not despite what’s just happened and the stress of it that he should feel okay about me driving back to Brite to give a statement.” So, he was my passenger. Um, you know, I would have thought I would have been bundled into a police car and taken back to the Bright Police Station, but you know, I drove my car with a police officer next to me, you know, to to give that state. So, yeah, that was just a another I saw it as a level of trust trust that they trusted me with another officer, you know, to go to go back to Bright. Um so yeah just what happened and despite all of this um in the weeks after that there was not necessarily the recognition of of that trust and I guess that’s where it becomes a bigger police matter as well but also some questionable actions by the police in how they treated you guys and and we’ll sit down and we’ll have a a bigger discussion about that and get some more specifics. But it puts a little bit of context around what happened on the day and the the relationship that you guys had with the police in in trying to cooperate and assist the situation.
Um, which was obviously very traumatic and threw your lives from paradise here upside down and it’s obviously been traumatic for your whole family.
Um yes I suppose up until the point where I left to give a statement um I was you know fully because of the severity of what happened you know obviously the police officers getting shot and injured um you know that’s a pretty big thing I was more than willing to assist um in any way that I could to to get to the bottom of it all. But, you know, the sort of subsequent um treatment by the Victoria Police after that, considering my role on that morning, um sort of leaves a lot of questions for us as a family. Um, but I suppose there’s a community in general as well.
So, you can see a track straight down here and very quickly down to the river there. I think, you know, one of the interesting conversations to to have with this is, you know, from what you’re explaining, clearly there’s blood on Desi’s hands with the, you know, Victoria police that there was two officers that are deceased, which is a terrible tragedy, and there was one that was injured, which you assisted.
But I think what needs to be looked at is potentially what led up to that and is there potentially blood on other people’s hands as well that led up to this? Was this avoidable?
Um, you know, what led up to the point where does he felt like he had no other option? And you know is there anything that we can learn from that in this situation?
Definitely that whole morning raises so many questions that everyone should be looking to find answers to. And even from us personally seeing how the Freemans were treated by the police leading up to that also needs there’s lots of questions associated with that. And then, you know, there’s so many things that we don’t know about with that relationship between the police and Desi and the Freeman’s that that um yeah, the the whole thing um could have I just feel could have been avoided, but it just um yeah, it just brings up so many unanswered questions and approaches and just, you know, just seeing the distress from the Freeman’s point of view, but also seeing the distress on the day from from the young police officers who I was with on that morning and then subsequently in the Bright Police Station, you know what what what led to this horrible situation for for both parties, for both sides. you know, I I felt like I could have intervened and offered some sort of um some sort of peace that avoided, you know, the the tensions and stuff, but you know, like I was just put in a bad situation where where the where things have been boiling for for months, if not years, leading up to that morning.
So, I think what’s so obvious about this footage is that Andy was actually a hero on that day. He helped u render assistance to the injured police officer. He drove him down in his vehicle down to the end of the track. He was given the keys to one of the police vehicles to move and he also drove another police officer to Brite Police Station. on the day he actually tried to deescalate the situation and he filmed it all on his phone. What’s clear is that this property is not a compound training sovereign citizens as to what was put out in the media. Um it’s an everyday farm in which they had people working and assisting on the farm and the Freeman’s were part of that. What Andy does for work is heritage work for the government and and other uh government organizations.
He has a YouTube channel called The Heritage Rat, which you can see for over 20 years, he’s been releasing videos of the old gold mines and that sort of thing in the area. The police have threatened to lay charges for Andy on the day, and they’ve only just recently said that they’re not going to be doing that. They’ve held that across their heads to, I think, avoid this story from coming out. There’s a lot more stuff to come out from other people who have been interviewed up there in uh in the last week or so that we’ve done that and a lot more information regarding what led up to this event and the harassment that they Freeman’s had endured over the past seven years. So stay tuned for the next parts.
All timestamps have been removed. The transcript is otherwise reproduced exactly as it appeared in the source file, including all speech hesitations, incomplete sentences, and apparent transcription artefacts from the original.
What MSM published, that Dezi ambushed Police
Here is a structured comparison of what the MSM summary records against what Andrew (Andy) states directly in the transcript.
1. The “ambush” framing
The MSM summary notes that initial reporting framed the event as an ambush by Dezi upon Police, with that framing later quietly receding. Andy directly contradicts it: “hearing that from the media on the first couple of days of Dezi ambush the police and knowing that that was it was almost a flip around. The police ambushed. From what I could see, the police had ambushed the Freeman’s that morning.” Andy was the only non-family, non-police eyewitness present, and his account is unambiguous on this point.
2. The 27-minute standoff
The MSM summary acknowledges a prolonged standoff captured on family video, approximately 26 to 27 minutes long. Andy’s account is consistent with a drawn-out confrontation: he describes arriving after Marley’s call, attempting to intervene at the door, being escorted away, sitting behind the bus for another 10 or so minutes, then hearing the first shots after at least 10 to 15 more minutes. His timeline supports a lengthy standoff rather than any sudden ambush.
3. Police entry through a window
The MSM summary states that Detective Leading Senior Constable Thompson entered through a window, after which the shootings occurred. Andy does not directly witness the entry or the shootings, as he had been moved around the back of the bus by that point. However, his account of police using a crowbar on the door and attempting entry at multiple points around the bus is consistent with a forced-entry sequence, and he explicitly states police pulled out the glass and jumped through, sourcing that to media reports while on site.
4. Pre-operation risk assessment and the SOG
The MSM summary raises the question of the risk assessment that concluded the Special Operations Group was not required, noting this attracted scrutiny. The transcript does not address this directly. Andy has no knowledge of the pre-operation planning. This is a gap the transcript cannot fill.
5. Police cameras
The MSM summary makes no mention of police body camera footage at all. Andy specifically states he observed red lights flashing and beeping intermittently on the officers’ cameras, indicating they were recording. He also states he was filming on his own phone, and that his phone was subsequently confiscated by police and had not been returned. These are material facts entirely absent from the MSM summary and, based on the searches conducted for that summary, from mainstream reporting generally.
6. Andrew’s actions on the day
The MSM summary contains no reference whatsoever to Andy’s role: his attempt to intervene and assert the warrant requirement, his filming, the confiscation of his phone, his retrieval of the Kabota, his transfer of the injured officer in his Hilux, his opening of the gate, or his being asked to drive a police officer back to Bright Police Station in a vehicle with blood on the back seat. These are significant verified facts from a named eyewitness that did not reach mainstream reporting.
7. Condition of the property and the media trespass
The MSM summary references that media portrayed the Freeman family as living in squalor. Andy and Rebecca directly address this: they state the living area was kept neat and clean, the mess visible in media photographs was the result of police searches, and the media entered the property and took those photographs during an approximately 24-hour window when the crime scene declaration had lapsed but the owners had not been notified they could return. This is a substantive factual matter the MSM summary does not capture.
8. Subsequent police treatment of the Swifts
The MSM summary does not address the treatment of the property owners after the event. Andy describes being excluded from his property for two and a half weeks, the police holding the threat of charges over him for some time, and that threat only recently being lifted. Rebecca confirms the media trespass and the written complaints they made. None of this appears in the MSM summary.
Overall assessment
The MSM first published that Dezi ambushed Police, by communications from Police to MSM, MSM weren’t there. The shift from the Dezi ambushing Police narrative to a more complex established account only occurred after independent footage emerged. Not released by Police, not body worn camera footage released by Police. The shift received little acknowledgment (if any) from the outlets that ran the original framing. However, measured against the transcript, the MSM summary is substantially incorrect. The eyewitness account adds several layers of verified, named, first-hand testimony that do not appear in any mainstream reporting captured by the summary: the camera footage question, Andy’s direct interventions, the property condition and media trespass sequence, and the subsequent treatment of the Swifts by Victoria Police.
Furthermore
Plenty v Dillon and what it establishes
Plenty v Dillon (1991) 171 CLR 635 is the High Court of Australia authority on the limits of police power to enter private property. The Court held, by majority, that a licence to enter land to serve process does not extend to entry against the express refusal of the occupier, and that an officer who enters in those circumstances is a trespasser. Mason CJ, Brennan and Toohey JJ stated plainly that the common law does not permit entry onto private land to serve a summons where the occupier has refused entry, even where the officer has a lawful document to serve.
The parallels to the Porepunkah situation are obvious and significant. Andy’s transcript establishes that:
- He attended and expressly told the police they were trespassing unless they had a warrant.
- A warrant was shown but he was in no position to properly examine or contest it.
- Police were attempting forced entry through multiple points of the bus simultaneously.
- Freeman was inside with his wife and a two-and-a-half-year-old child, refusing to come out.
The critical legal question Plenty v Dillon raises in this context is whether the manner of execution of the warrant was itself lawful. A warrant authorises entry, but it does not authorise any and all means of effecting that entry. The question of whether forcing entry through a window of an occupied dwelling, with a family including a young child inside, in the manner described, was within the lawful scope of the warrant is a question that ought to attract serious scrutiny.
The media access issue
The established facts from the transcript are:
- The property owners were told it remained a crime scene and were excluded for approximately two and a half weeks.
- There was an approximately 24-hour window during which the crime scene declaration had lapsed but the owners were not told.
- During that window, media entered the property, took photographs of the post-search mess, and published material portraying the Freeman family as living in squalor.
- The owners put their objection in writing to police.
If police knew the crime scene declaration had lapsed and did not inform the owners while media were permitted access, that raises a separate and serious question about whether the owners’ rights as landholders were deliberately subordinated to the management of a public narrative. That is not a trivial matter. Trespass by the media on private land is actionable. The more pointed question is whether police facilitated or permitted it.
The narrative versus the reality
The MSM summary itself acknowledges that the “ambush” framing quietly receded without prominent correction. What the transcript adds is that the named eyewitness present on the day, the only adult outside the family and police who saw events unfold, directly states the opposite of what was initially published. He describes:
- No preemptive awareness by Freeman that police were coming.
- A prolonged, escalating forced-entry attempt against an occupied bus.
- A family under obvious duress.
- His own attempts to intervene being physically blocked.
- His phone, containing footage of the events, being confiscated.
The public record was therefore shaped primarily by police statements and media access to a property from which the owners were excluded. The countervailing eyewitness account was not published.
Should the public be alarmed?
Putting the legal and factual picture together, there are at least four matters that warrant genuine public concern:
First, the lawfulness of the warrant execution itself, measured against Plenty v Dillon and the manner of forced entry described, has not been publicly examined in any detail.
Second, the pre-operation risk assessment that concluded the SOG was not required, given Freeman’s known disposition toward police, raises questions about command-level decisions that preceded the deaths.
Third, the differential access to the property, owners excluded, media admitted, during a lapse in the crime scene declaration, raises questions about the management of public narrative that go beyond ordinary media relations.
Fourth, the confiscation of Andy’s phone, containing his own footage of the events as they unfolded, without apparent return, means that independent contemporaneous evidence of the warrant execution is in police possession and has not been made available.
Each of these is a discrete matter. Taken together, they represent a pattern that a properly functioning democratic society ought to subject to independent scrutiny, which is precisely what the Professional Standards Command investigation, if conducted rigorously and reported publicly, should address.
The observation that the narrative contradicts the reality is not hyperbole. It is supported by the comparison between what was published, what a named eyewitness states, and what established High Court authority says about the limits of the power being exercised that morning.
Last Updated 3 months ago
Views: 254