Police spoke to Stanley Turvey's family during manhunt in bid to get him to surrender

Acting Assistant Commissioner Karen Nyholm said police had been in touch with Turvey's family members and friends in the hopes of a peaceful end to his crime spree, which had started on Monday and ended in his death.

Turvey confronted police at an Ardmona property, where he was staying with one other person, with tactical police forced to fatally shoot him about 10.15am on Wednesday, September 20.

The acting assistant commissioner said police had been threatened and took action.

The incident occurred a short distance from where Turvey had dumped a car he had stolen at gunpoint in Yarrawonga on Tuesday during the crime spree.

Acting Assistant Commissioner Nyholm said police had hoped to avoid the fatal outcome at Ardmona.

"I'm not going to go into the details of what's actually occurred at that location, because obviously that's part of the coronial investigation that will now take place, but you can conclude that police have taken action that's required to shoot Stanley Turvey, and unfortunately he is now deceased," she said.

"As a result of that being a fatal police shooting, the Homicide Squad will now undertake an investigation.

"I would like to take this opportunity to thank the members of the public through the north east of Victoria and NSW who have been subject to some of the criminal activity of Stanley Turvey over the past 48 hours.

"I'd like to acknowledge the impact on those communities, be it the victims that were involved, the witnesses that witnessed what took place, and the broader community."

It was unclear how Turvey had travelled from Tatura to the fatal shooting site, or the identity of the other person at the property.

Police received information Turvey was at the property but did not say who provided the information.

Acting Assistant Commissioner Nyholm said it had been the intention of police to get Turvey to surrender himself.

"I can indicate that obviously we had contact with his family and some associates," she said.

"And certainly, it was our intention to try to get him to surrender himself into safe custody."

Turvey boasted about links to the Finks bikie gang on one of his Facebook pages.

In one video, Turvey could be seen holding a man in a dog chain and forcing him to eat food off a floor.

"I'm gonna stop being a bad dog Stan," the man was forced to say.

"I'm a dog everybody."

One video appeared to show him with a gun and photos show large amounts of cash and what appears to be drugs.

Police have previously appealed for help to find Turvey and have previously said he may have access to guns.

He is believed to have served multiple jail terms.

Police were trying to serve a firearms prohibition order on Turvey at a Katandra West property on Monday when he fired a gun into the air and fled in a car, setting off a manhunt.

He later crashed, stole a vehicle, took a man hostage and forced him to drive to Finley.

The armed carjacking occurred at Yarrawonga on Tuesday, with that vehicle found at Tatura later in the day.

Turvey somehow made his way to Ardmona, where police pinpointed his location.

Turvey's next of kin were informed about the fatal shooting.

Tributes were posted online.

"I feel for your little ones man it could of been a different outcome but the choices you made didn't allow that," one Facebook user said.

Acting Assistant Commissioner Nyholm said it wasn't lost on police that his family had lost a loved one.

"This is not the outcome that we would have wanted today," she said.

"We wanted to take him into safe custody.

"But it's fair to say we needed to do what it is to protect the public, protect ourselves in that situation.

"My focus will be on looking after our police members."

Police and victims would be offered support.

Acting Assistant Commissioner Nyholm said it was the state's biggest manhunt since the search for Gino and Mark Stocco.

The father and son pair evaded arrest after shooting at a police car near Henty in 2015 to avoid arrest over a murder.

Acting Assistant Commissioner Nyholm said NSW officers were also involved in the search for Turvey.

She said members of the public had contacted police with information but it could be easy for people to "slip the net pretty quickly" despite the large number of police involved.

"That minute and that's all that takes," she said.

Police will also investigate whether anybody harboured Turvey during his three days on the run.

Police professional standards will oversee the Homicide Squad's investigation into the shooting, with information to be provided to the coroner for further investigation.

To read more stories, download The Border Mail news app in the Apple Store or Google Play.

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content: