Wieambilla coronial inquest told QPS continue terrorism investigation into Train family
The events of the Wieambilla mass shooting are being investigated as an act of terror, a coronial inquest has been told.
The horrific ambush on police officers carried out by three religiously motivated extremists is being investigated as an act of terror, a coronial inquest has been told.
Constable Matthew Arnold was murdered by Nathaniel Train within minutes of four police officers arriving at 251 Wains Rd in Wieambilla shortly after 4.30pm on December 12, 2022.
Moments later, Constable Rachel McCrow was killed at close range by Train’s brother, Gareth Train, as constables Randall Kirk and Keely Brough ran for cover.
The four officers had been carrying out a welfare check for Nathaniel at the property when they were ambushed in a hail of bullets.
The inquest had been told the four officers were wearing standard integrated load-bearing vests with inserted soft armour plates when they’d arrived at the Wieambilla property.
Act of terrorism Deputy Commissioner Cheryl Scanlon told the inquest the QPS is carrying out an ongoing terrorism investigation relating to the Trains in the wake of the horrific events at Wieambilla.
It comes after now-retired Deputy Commissioner Tracy Linford confirmed after the shootings that the Trains’ had engaged in terrorism months after the incident.
“We have a current and open terrorism investigation … that is not yet complete,” Deputy Commissioner Scanlon said.
“I don’t propose to discuss the ongoing terrorism investigation before the inquest, given the sensitivities, and certainly I don’t want to jeopardise court proceedings in another jurisdiction.
“But needless to say, the terrorism investigation is an open matter here in Queensland.”
She confirmed the ongoing investigation involved another man, who was a close associate of the Trains, but would comment no further because he remains before the courts in the United States.
The inquest has previously been told Donald Day Jr is the close associate.
He had been in semi-regular contact with Gareth and Stacey online.
Police did the best they could
Deputy Commissioner Scanlon said the efforts of staff during the high pressure situation were admirable.
She said Sergeant Justin Drier had given “sound advice” to Constable Kirk when he told him to run to the front gate while hiding from the Trains.
“The officer was in a very difficult position and in fact if the officer hadn’t followed the advice he may too have been killed that afternoon,” Ms Scanlon told the inquest.
The inquest was previously told Constable Kirk had managed to run to the safety of his police vehicle, still located at the locked front gate, despite being fired upon by the Trains.
He managed to escape to safety but had been shot in the hip while fleeing.
Deputy Commissioner Scanlon also commended the efforts of triple-0 call taker Katherine Beilby, who she believed saved the life of Constable Brough after spending two hours on the phone with her as she hid crouched in scrub hiding from the Trains as they lit fires to smoke her out.
“In my view she kept Keely Brough alive among other things,” she said.
“The calmness and the measured way and the caring way in which she maintained those communications.
“It’s one of the features in my view of that particular call and the events for Keely Brough that actually saved her life.
“The fact that she was able to whisper down that phone for two hours and the operator kept her on that phone and kept her calm until a course of action could be sorted to extricate her from the property is quite remarkable.”
She agreed with the police command’s decision to leave Mr Dare’s body where it lay until they had safely got to constables Arnold and McCrow – who at the time were unconfirmed whether they were alive or dead – and later during the extraction process.
“I don’t take any issue with the decision made,” she said.
“I think the right decision was made albeit distressing.”
The inquest previously was told some of the officers had experienced shots flying over their head after they’d arrived on the scene.
“I can appreciate how that was very difficult for Mrs (Kerry) Dare,” Deputy Commissioner Scanlon said.
“We provided ongoing assistance and support.
“I appreciate this would have been very distressing for her.
“I’m satisfied police remained with her and provided her assistance until such time as she could see her husband and then escorted her back home.”
Issue with police armoured vests
During the final day of evidence, Detective Inspector Jason Hindmarsh told the coronial inquest about his investigation into the deaths of the two officers.
When asked whether Constable Arnold would have survived had he been wearing a “ballistic protection vest” that day, Inspector Hindmarsh explained that it would have done nothing to protect the officer.
“The calibre of that weapon (used by Nathaniel) was excessive of the ballistic capabilities,” he said.
Inspector Hindmarsh said neither the soft or hard plates inserted in the police-issued vests were designed to withstand the fatal shot fired at Constable Arnold.
The inquest was told the hard armour insert was not worn on a general duties basis but was accessible in police vehicles for high-risk situations.
The Train family had also fatally shot their neighbour, Alan Dare, at 5.26pm after he’d come to inspect smoke billowing from the property.
The inquest was previously told a public safety warning was issued at 5.27pm, urging residents to avoid the area as the siege was under way.
Inspector Hindmarsh said emergency text messages and landline calls, which are used during extreme weather events and for “threats to life”, would not have assisted the police operation as it could have alerted “potential offenders of police activities”.
“The use of the system would not have been able to assist in the community awareness prior to Alan Dare’s unfortunate death,” he said.
Poor radio signal
Through his investigation, Inspector Hindmarsh determined that constables McCrow, Brough and Kirk all made unsuccessful attempts to call for back-up using their handheld police-issued radios.
He said the majority of Wieambilla fell under the Chinchilla police command, but 251 Wains Rd was technically in the Tara district.
It’s believed Constable McCrow had been using her police radio signal connected to Tara police station – where she was stationed – while constables Kirk and Brough were dialled into the Chinchilla frequency.
Inspector Hindmarsh said an analog radio system was the only accessible option in the area but required officers to change stations depending on where they were.
“It requires some local knowledge,” he said.
“There is no definitive map that can show where every radio channel will work.”
Inspector Hindmarsh said none of the officers were using a channel that was later determined to likely have worked effectively at the Trains’ property.
The inquest was told as part of the internal review, a QPS master list of radio channels had been updated, with all cars equipped with QR codes providing access to the list.
All police iPads now also have a master list have available without needing online access.
Body-worn camera upgrades
The inquest was told new body-worn cameras had been rolled out to 12,100 officers in June 2023.
Inspector Hindmarsh said among the improvements to the equipment included better lenses and live-streaming capabilities that would allow supervisors to access the body-worn camera while an officer was on the front line.
He said further education has also been undertaken for officers to know that their body-worn cameras had the ability to go into “stealth mode”, which would silence the beeping sound the equipment made.
Constable Brough’s body-worn camera continued to beep while she was hiding in scrub from the Train brothers, who had tried to smoke her out by lighting fires.
Having viewed each officers’ body-worn camera footage, Inspector Hindmarsh said Constable Brough had stated that she’d “prefer to die by fire than stand up and be shot” by the Trains despite the fire coming within 1m of her feet.
She was later extracted by police and taken to hospital.
The Train brothers, and Gareth’s wife Stacey, were fatally shot by SERT officers hours later after negotiations with the trio failed.
More to come