Wieambilla massacre first anniversary: Katarina Carroll’s admission on police procedure
On the first anniversary of Queensland’s worst police massacre, Police Commissioner Katarina Carroll has made a stunning concession.
Police & Courts
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A year on from the Wieambilla massacre, Police Commissioner Katarina Carroll has conceded the way police served the warrant for Nathaniel Train on that tragic December 12 day would be done very differently now.
But questions remain, as the inquiry into the tragedy unpacks the murders of constables Rachel McCrow and Matthew Arnold and neighbour Alan Dare.
Asked whether those officers would have been sent to the Wains Rd property in Wieambilla today, Ms Carroll said: “Probably not the way that they did undertake that role back then.
“Certainly on the intelligence they had, they felt comfortable acting on the job they had … after all it was just for a missing person.
“But it is important as the inquiry goes on, leading into the coronial, that we really do unpack to make sure.
“Did we have all the intel, did we have the systems working together, did we have all the intel from across the nation as well … but that will obviously form part of the investigation as we go forward.
“We have better comms systems even since (December 12).”
Constables McCrow and Arnold, from Tara police station, and constables Randall Kirk and Keely Brough, from Chinchilla police station, went to the property in search of Nathaniel Train, who had been reported missing in NSW.
Within minutes constables Arnold and McCrow were fatally shot by conspiracy theorists Nathaniel, Gareth and Stacey Train, while constables Kirk and Brough escaped the initial gunfire and called for backup.
Good Samaritan Alan Dare was also fatally shot.
Police had attended the property on occasions in an effort to find former school principal Nathaniel and ask him about an illegal border crossing in 2021 in which he damaged a gate, abandoned his vehicle and discarded a number of guns.
But in the weeks after the Wieambilla shootings, Deputy Commissioner Tracy Linford revealed the constables were in possession of a warrant to serve on Nathaniel for wilful damage and failing to secure firearms. Pressed on the fact the four constables were in possession of a warrant to serve on Nathaniel and that he was not simply a missing person, Ms Carroll said: “It is up to those officers and the officers they work with to make that assessment.
“So every day when we go out on jobs there’s this risk assessment always done and then they make the decision as to how to attend that job … that happens I’m sure a couple of hundred times a day throughout all of Queensland.
“So I’m sure, I know, that obviously (a risk assessment) was done on this occasion … and a decision was made to go.
“If there is a high-risk situation (SERT) will be automatically called out … but I expect every police officer, officer in charge to look at the intelligence that they have for every address they go to.”
Ms Carroll said she was very confident the inquest, planned for July next year, would give the QPS, the Arnold and McCrow families and the wider community all the answers they deserved.
“I think the investigation will reveal a lot, the investigation will be thorough and I am very confident in the coronial system that Queensland has because it really does get to the bottom of what has occurred,” she said. “It is rare that a day goes by that I don’t think about (constables Arnold and McCrow) because it is such a horrific event in our history and in fact such a horrific event for police jurisdictions across the country and across the world … I think of them constantly.
“The manner in which it happened is something we have never seen, by people that you don’t expect to do that, so the organisation I think is still reeling and in shock from the senselessness of it. It is hard not to get emotional, of course, because it’s sad … I think it’s still for everyone a grieving process … and I think that will be ongoing for years to come.”
Speaking about the initial briefing she received on December 12 last year, Ms Carroll said: “You sit there and you hope and you pray that no one is hurt and that every one comes out of this OK.
“Then when it was confirmed it is the most awful information you could ever receive and in fact I think every commissioner who’s been here before me and after me, it’s those phone calls you never want to receive.”
Ms Carroll said the shootings affected her emotionally, as it “could so easily be your own child”.
“I think the death of an officer or officers is by far the most difficult … they are your people … they are like the children I too need to protect … they are similar ages to my own children,” she said. “I often think of these young people in my organisation like an extension of my own children … I’m protective of them … and if you were to look in the history of Rachel and Matt – we are talking about high achievers, we are talking about great young people (who) would have made such a difference to the world.”
Of the Arnold and McCrow families, Ms Carroll said: “I don’t think you could ever come to terms with what happened … I don’t know how you come to terms with what happened, particularly when you know who did this.
“The people that we know that did this were members of the community, teachers, groundsmen that were just like us … so it would be extraordinarily difficult for the families and even for us as police in our organisation to come to terms with how and why this happened. I think for the organisation it is going to take a long time to unpack (and) as I said probably never come to terms with what happened on that day.”
The property was the residence of married couple Gareth and Stacey Train.
Stacey, who was previously married to Nathaniel, was the head of a curriculum at a local school. Gareth was a former school groundsman and Nathaniel was previously the principal of a regional NSW school.
“I think that’s what we grapple with … that’s what we find so hard to understand … how this happened and who did it is probably the most shocking part of this and I think we will never quite understand how these people did this,” Ms Carroll said.
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