‘It’s really polarised the population’: amid a police search for Dezi Freeman’s helpers, some sympathy towards the double-murderer remains

Many in Porepunkah, Victoria are exhausted at having the town’s name attached to fugitive Dezi Freeman and worried about the impact on business. Photograph: Ellen Smith/The Guardian

As beers are poured at the Bright pub, and cyclists pedal down the side of Mount Buffalo, grief, anger and a conspiratorial sense of disbelief is bubbling over.

Many in the alpine region are celebrating the death of Dezi Freeman, who was shot by police on Monday after seven months on the run after allegedly killing two police officers in cold blood and injuring a third. Others are more sympathetic to the fugitive – and some refuse to believe he’s dead.