Wieambilla inquest: SERT officer shares insight into final moments before Train family killed

A specialist police officer has recalled the moment an armoured police vehicle was forced to retreat after a “volley of gunfire” during a siege.

Two specialist police officer recall how their heavy armoured vehicles were “rocked” by gunfire that “packed quite a punch” as they tried to get Christianextremists to surrender hours after a fatal ambush in rural Queensland.

A coronial inquest into the 2022 massacre at Wieambilla, in Queensland’s Western Downs region, continued on Thursday, with specialist police officers recalling the dramatic siege between Nathaniel, Gareth and Stacey Train and the Special Emergency Response Team (SERT).

Gareth, Nathaniel and Stacey Train never responded to police negotiations before their deaths.

Negotiators and SERT were called to the rural property after Queensland Police constables Rachel McCrow, 29, and Matthew Arnold, 26, were murdered by the Trains at the Wains Rd property on December 12, 2022.

The Trains’ neighbour Alan Dare, 58, was also murdered after he went to investigate fires lit by the trio.

Two other constables – Keely Brough and Randall Kirk – survived the fatal ambush.

Gareth and Stacey’s last moments

SERT Operative 201 was the on-board sniper travelling with team 3 towards the property in a lighter armoured vehicle than the BearCat.

Operative 201, who cannot be legally identified, told the inquest the teams were being impacted by several things, including smoke and the treeline, as they approached the house to provide support without compromising their position.

The inquest was told the Trains did not initially know where team 3 was but continued firing in their general direction.

Operative 201 said he “took the first shot” from team 3.

Constables Matthew Arnold and Rachel McCrow were gunned down at the property.

When asked by counsel assisting the coroner Ruth O’Gorman KC whether “that first shot, as you understood it, appeared to have connected with and injured Gareth”, Operative 201 replied: “That’s correct.”

Following that first shot, Operative 201 said team three decided to push towards the house.

“We’ve turned a white light on to get better situational awareness of what we were dealing with,” Operative 201 said.

“We quickly realised they were aware of where we were and we took a number of rounds from both Gareth and Nathaniel at that time.”

The inquest was told team 3 quickly retreated from their position, about 30m from the house.

Operative 201 said the gunfire team 3’s vehicle took during this time “packed quite a punch”.

“It was definitely something I haven’t ever experienced before,” Operative 201 said.

“The impact of the rounds when they were hitting the vehicle … the vehicle is quite a few tonne in weight.

“Those rounds were hitting and were actually moving the vehicle.

“The calibre of the weapon that they had – it packed quite a punch.

“That effect was felt, to the point when they were hitting on the window and the windscreen, you could feel the percussion I suppose or the effect of the rounds hitting the glass.

“I can’t really explain that more than that.”

Gareth Train’s rifle where he was fatally shot by SERT officers.

The inquest was told team 3 again moved towards the house, which allowed Operative 201 the opportunity to take a clear shot at Stacey when it was decided she wasn’t going to respond to negotiators.

“I saw her (Stacey) on a number of occasions (during the siege),” Operative 201 said.

“The two times she did come out onto the internal veranda … the first time she came out, I didn’t see a firearm in her possession.

“She’s then gone back inside and come out with a firearm, with a long arm, raised it and started shooting in direction of teams 1 and 2.

“That’s when I’ve engaged the female, Stacey, given she had that firearm in her possession.”

Operative 201 confirmed team 3 then retreated again after realising they were “starting to get in the crossfire” of other teams and weren’t able to provide further support.

Stacey Train’s rifle where she was fatally shot by SERT officers.

Containing the Train family

SERT operative 114 told the inquest on Thursday that they flew to Wieambilla to join the recovery mission after news of the ambush.

The operative, who cannot be legally identified, said it was their role to manage the containment of the property to ensure the trio did not leave either on foot or in a vehicle.

“If they do we are in a position to challenge them and negotiate them to some sort of surrender,” Operative 114 said.

“But they certainly weren’t to leave the property once we got on the ground.

“I didn’t want to spook our offenders until we had some containment in place.

“It certainly was our intent to try and move in as appropriately as possible to get containment; them leaving the property was … never an option.

“I couldn’t allow that to happen after what they had alleged to have done.”

Operative 114 was seated in the BearCat as the four armoured police vehicles moved towards the property.

The inquest was previously told that as the BearCat approached the house where the Trains were positioned, gunfire struck the front of the armoured vehicle.

Operative 114 said the “volley of gunfire” the BearCat experienced at that moment was “quite surreal”.

The Trains’ property where the murders took place. Picture: 9News

 
“It was like nothing I’d experienced before and the accuracy of the first six or eight rounds to the front to the BearCat and how we rocked when those rounds hit the BearCat was quite surreal,” Operative 114 said.

“The impact to the front of the windscreen and how accurate it was … we made comment about that in the vehicle.”

“It’s nearly a 9.5 tonne car. It rocked and I never experienced that before, the magnitude of calibre we were dealing with.”

Operative 114 said the team had quickly determined the Trains likely had “scope rifles” and it was decided a sniper must jump into the BearCat to provide support before it again tried to approach the house.

“I was very mindful of our movements from some of the information I had about the police being ambushed,” Operative 114 said.

“So when we did move forward, we were certainly mindful of where someone else might be lying in an ambush situation.”

Operative 114 said as the four armoured vehicles continued to move towards the house, negotiations continued with the Trains, by way of unanswered telephone calls and also using a loudspeaker attached to the BearCat.

Attempts at negotiation

Operative 114 said the Trains never attempted to respond to negotiators despite ongoing attempts.

The SERT Bearcat vehicle that was shot at by Nathaniel Train using Constable Matthew Arnold's pistol.

“It’s nothing I’ve ever seen where they were sort of almost robotic – no gestures, (didn’t) yell anything out,” the operative said.

“They went about placing themselves in suitable positions to get lethal gun fight towards us.”

Operative 114 said the BearCat ultimately got about 50m to 60m away from the house and positioned itself for police to continue negotiations.

They said Nathaniel continued firing at “the belly of the BearCat” during this time.

Operative 114 said they saw Stacey fire her rifle while standing on the stairs of the house.

“It took me by surprise. I felt we were gaining tighter containment with (Gareth) and (Nathaniel),” Operative 114 said.

“I did feel we could attempt negotiations with (Stacey).

“I believe she was firing at the stronghold … at different times … but we were hoping to get some formal negotiations with her.”

Operative 114 said the BearCat had “taken a fair few hits” from the gunfire.

The inquest had been told Stacey returned inside the house before reappearing and firing a second round of gunfire at the BearCat before officers returned fire at her.

The Trains’ ‘last stand’

The inquest was told Gareth was killed moments before Stacey was fatally shot in the head by a sniper in the BearCat.

“I felt Gareth Train was certainly (deceased), his movement from Polair (communication) was minimal,” Operative 114 said.

“The gun released from (Stacey’s) hands and she fell down the staircase and didn’t move.

“There was still movement from Nathaniel (positioned) behind the log or couch.”

Nathaniel Train's rifle where he was fatally shot by SERT officers during his ‘last stand’.

The operative said Nathaniel was again urged to put his weapons down by negotiators before he opened fire on the BearCat, firing Constable Arnold’s Glock at the windscreen.

“The negotiations continued the whole time for him to surrender and then he was sort of all in a ball behind the log,” Operative 114 said.

“It was like his last stand as he stood up to fire the Glock when he was ultimately engaged.”

The trio were killed within minutes of each other.

Previously, police confirmed the Train family members followed the fundamentalist religion “premillennialism”, believing Jesus Christ would return to earth after a period of extreme suffering.

SERT operated ‘appropriately’

David Proctor, a retired Northern Territory police commander, was tasked with reviewing the appropriateness of the SERT response in relation to the Wieambilla siege.

Mr Proctor told the inquest that all of the actions taken by SERT on the night were appropriate and that their strategy was “tactically sound”.

Mr Proctor said he couldn’t recall in his 34 years of service a situation like Wieambilla where people continued to be in a shootout with police during negotiation attempts.

Former NT Police commander Davis Proctor says the actions of the SERT officers at Wieambilla were appropriate. NewsWire / Glenn Campbell

He said “nobody else in Australia has had to deal with it at this level”.

“I think it’s the risk to the public that becomes the main consideration and I think that was their only option (to act how SERT operated that night),” he said.

Meanwhile, weapons compliance expert Detective Sergeant Terrance Fergusson told the inquest that had the Train property been subject to a routine weapons inspection, as is custom for licensed gun owners, officers would have seized all weapons found on site because they weren’t safely secured.

Mr Fergusson said in the alternative scenario, the unregistered weapons would have been destroyed and those registered would only have been returned to the property if the Trains could prove that they could store them safely.

Originally published as Wieambilla inquest: SERT officer shares insight into final moments before Train family killed