Staying with the Today show briefly, where Neal Thompson’s former colleague Alex Krstic shared his memories of the officer.
Thompson was one of two who died, allegedly shot by wanted man Dezi Freeman, at a Porepunkah property at the base of Mount Buffalo on Tuesday, August 26.
Neal Thompson and his dog, Jimmy.Credit: Instagram
Krstic was a sergeant at Collingwood police station in inner Melbourne when Thompson arrived as a trainee constable.
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“He was a country boy with wide eyes, ready to go into the police force. He was very keen to learn,” Krstic recalled.
“We hit it off fairly well. I think I was probably responsible for firing up his interest in becoming a detective when I took him down to the major crime squad offices during one shift and he met some of the detectives there. He said: ‘How do I get involved in this? I think it’s pretty good.’”
Krstic said it was “absolutely horrible” to hear of Thompson’s death. “I’ve known the guy for 30 years,” he said.
“Because of our common interests, we kept in fairly close contact. I only saw him a couple of weeks ago, we had a beerat the Alexandra pub together, and he was telling me about how he was looking forward to retirement, and how things were going up on his farm.”
In relation to Freeman, Krstic said: “History has shown us that in scenarios like this in the past, it’s never ended well for the bad guys.”
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