Nearly a year after the Porepunkah shooting, local police are declaring the rollout of semi-automatic rifles within the Wangaratta Police Service Area (PSA) as a vital mechanism to protect the community from similar dangerous threats.

A Victoria Police spokesperson confirmed to this masthead that Wangaratta police would soon be home to semi-automatic rifles (SARs) which will be assigned to relevant shifts within the PSA, also containing Alpine and Moira shires.

“This will mean frontline police are well equipped and provided an extra layer of protection when responding to critical incidents,” a Victoria Police spokesperson said.

The move brings Wangaratta in line with other regional areas including Ballarat, Geelong, Morwell and Shepparton who have access to the rifles.

The rifles are also the same as those used by specialist police including the Public Order Response Team.

“Police will not be patrolling the streets with rifles as part of their general duties, instead they will be securely stored and won’t be seen by the community unless necessary,” the spokesperson said.

Acting Inspector Nathan Ractliffe, acting Wangaratta Local Area Commander said the rifles would be a huge benefit to policing and community safety within the Wangaratta area.

“This will bring a whole lot of trust and confidence to the community that they are protected by us with this capability,” he said.

 ”This goes a long way to our members' welfare and safety as well… they'll now be protected from incidents against long arm firearms but with greater capability than our service pistols.”

Act Insp Ractliffe said a contingent of Wangaratta police members have commenced training to utilise the SARs which comprises an intensive five-day course learning how to operate, safely store and handle the weapons.

Local police vehicles have also been fitted out with the capacity to safely contain, transport and rapidly deploy SARs.

By the end of July, Act Insp Ractliffe said it was expected the Wangaratta station would have enough officers trained to give the force a 24-hour response capability when they are officially equipped with the rifles before the end of August.

 ”This is going to be another tool in our toolkit of policing when dealing with incidents that involve long arm firearms,” he said.

“This is a real benefit to our policing service area.”

Act Insp Ractliffe said the SARS will be accessible by police across the entire Wangaratta PSA as well as the Wodonga PSA if required.

The rollout comes in response to the Porepunkah shooting on 26 August 2025 when Wangaratta Detective Leading Senior Constable Neal Thompson and Senior Constable Vadim de Waart-Hottart were shot and killed while 10 officers conducted a search warrant at Desmond Freeman’s rural property.

A third officer was also seriously injured after being shot in the leg.

Freeman would not be seen for the next seven months until he was shot dead by specialist police at a Thologolong property.

He pointed a handgun belonging to one of the slain police officers at police after they attempted to negotiate his surrender for some three hours on the morning of 30 March 2026.

Police have made multiple arrests during the search for Freeman and since his death attempting to track down any associates who may have assisted him to evade police capture.

Arrests were made in properties as far north as suburban Sydney and south as Stanley.

The investigation remains ongoing while both the Porepunkah shooting and the confrontation at Thologolong are now subject to coronial investigation.