A major hunt is continuing in the Australian state of Victoria for a man accused of shooting dead two police officers on his semi-rural property, and injuring a third.

Police have confirmed that they are searching for Dezi Bird Freeman, a conspiracy theorist and self-described “sovereign citizen” who rejects government and law.

Freeman, 56, has a long history with the police, and his hatred of authority has been well documented in online posts, videos and court documents.

He has called police “terrorist thugs”, compared them to Nazis and tried to arrest a magistrate during court proceedings.

Less than a week before the shooting of two police in Porepunkah, his wife, Mali, had told a neighbour that she was concerned about his behaviour, The Age reports.

Locals in the town have told journalists that the father of two was kind and polite, but then, during the Covid pandemic, his behaviour became erratic and his views more extreme.

Freeman – born Desmond Christopher Filby – developed a public profile for his views on the health crisis.

He refused to wear face masks in shops, rejected vaccinations and became increasingly outspoken about his distrust of the government restrictions and lockdowns – of which Victoria had particularly long and strict ones.

“He was anti everything to do with it,” one local told the Sydney Morning Herald.

“He went from being just a pretty ordinary country bloke… a normal dude you’d see at the local footy club all the time to quite a strange bloke. He fell down a bit of a rabbit hole and sort of disappeared and went off the radar.”

Australian media reports that Freeman describes himself as a “sovereign citizen”, who typically believe they are immune from government rules.

In Australia, the movement saw a particular boom during the Covid lockdowns of 2020. Victoria’s then-Chief Police Commissioner Shane Patton said at the time that officers were forced “to smash the windows of cars and pull people out to provide details” after they refused to answer questions or show documents.

An Australian Federal Police briefing note from 2023 said the movement had “an underlying capacity to inspire violence”.

In 2021, Freeman was involved in an attempt to have then-state Premier Daniel Andrews tried for treason.

Freeman was arrested outside a court in Victoria, where around 250 anti-government protesters had assembled.

In a video of his arrest, he can be heard telling the crowd: “They’re gonna make some [expletive] up about me mate, because I stood up to them.”

The treason case was thrown out.

Freeman has been in and out of court for years, mainly on driving charges, some of which were dropped.

His conduct in court showed his contempt for authority. “Shame on you!” he shouted at a judge last year, who refused to drop his driving charges.

Freeman claimed that he was under duress when the police pulled him over, and acting in self-defence by filming them with his phone as he drove off.

He argued that he was worried they might try to arrest him, which would be “an assault and abduction”.

“I felt threatened and preyed upon…. even the sight of a cop or a cop car… it’s like an Auschwitz survivor seeing a Nazi soldier,” Freeman said, court documents show.

The same file shows him referring to police as “frigging Nazis”, “Gestapo” and “terrorist thugs”.

In one of his more sensational court appearances, he tried to arrest a magistrate and police officer during a dispute over public access to a national park.

“You’re acting oppressively,” he told the judge. “You must stand down, and are now in my custody and under arrest. You are not free to leave.”

He then ordered a police officer to arrest the magistrate, and when the officer refused, Freeman said he was under arrest too.

They ignored him.

Neighbours say that Freeman and his family live on a bus on a 20-hectare plot on the outskirts of Porepunkah.

Locals told journalists that they thought he lived with several people on the property, in a kind of compound, secured by a big gate with security cameras.

Australian media say the police officers were entering the bus to search it when they were shot at. Freeman was last seen running into dense bushland nearby.

Police say they understand he is an experienced bushman – or a person familiar with the wilderness – which presents a challenge for the search party hunting for him.

“He’s well-versed in the bush and there’s caves up there, so it’ll be a while before they find him, I think,” a neighbour told the ABC.

Police have warned that Freeman is “heavily armed”, and the Sydney Morning Herald reports that he is believed to have stolen the guns of the police officers that he allegedly shot.

The Freemans – Dezi, Mali and their children – have lived in the Porepunkah area for many years and were known around the small community. Mali teaches music to children and works at a supermarket.

In 2018, the family featured on Channel Nine’s A Current Affair programme, where they lamented about their “neighbours from hell” at a previous property, who were intimidating and disruptive.

“Mali and her family are all very kind, very beautiful people,” a neighbour, whose grandchildren took music lessons with Mali, told the programme.