Ashley Aldridge

Yeah, that's right.

So they've gone in, they've surrounded that shipping container.

We know that the Victoria Police helicopter was sort of hovering overhead at this point as well.

And this is where those negotiation attempts really started.

They attempted to wake him up.

They had a loudspeaker.

They had the sirens going.

But at this point, there was no response coming from that shipping container from Freeman.

Yeah, so it was several hours that they were attempting to coax him out of that shipping container.

We know that when he eventually did appear after those sort of tactics were used, gas canisters were deployed to try and get him out of the shipping container, that there were

conversations that went on for several hours.

We heard that from Counsel Assisting that Freeman at times was quite erratic.

He was coming in and out of the shipping container.

He was, I think it's fair to say, goading police at one point, calling them thugs and cowards.

He also defended the shooting deaths of those two police officers in Pawpunka as self-defense.

Now, an hour after the special operations group officers arrived at that property, Freeman actually came out of that shipping container and he was standing under that makeshift veranda.

It was at that point that he was shot in the leg by one of the special operations group officers with what was described as a less than lethal foam baton round.

Now, that hit him in the leg, but he was able to retreat back inside that shipping container before they could arrest him.

And then he sort of continued to be noncompliant and the negotiations continued on.

Yeah, so we heard at around 7 o'clock a mobile phone was thrown at the door of the shipping container and Freeman was really encouraged to come out and pick that phone up to be able to speak directly with the negotiator.