Inside chilling FBI interview with American accused of inciting the Wieambilla police killers
The American man accused of inciting the Wieambilla police killers threatened to kill the FBI agents who arrested him before making a chilling warning about the 2022 massacre.
National
Don't miss out on the headlines from National. Followed categories will be added to My News.
The American sovereign citizen accused of inciting the Wieambilla police killers threatened to kill the FBI agents who arrested him, saying he would have repeated the Queensland massacre had they not prised him away from his fortified off-grid home.
Donald Day boasted that his Arizona ranch – where agents found nine guns and thousands of rounds of ammunition – was prepared for his “last stand”, as his wife Sabrina Spires also claimed she was ready to fight like Gareth, Stacey and Nathaniel Train.
In a chilling interview with the FBI, detailed in court by a federal prosecutor, Day also ranted about child sex trafficking conspiracies and claimed he killed his stepfather as a child when he witnessed him raping his stepsister.
Dondi Osborne, from the US Attorney’s Office, said investigators had not verified the incident but that it did “shed light” on Day’s extremist ideology, which was at the centre of a year-long probe sparked by his online communication with the Trains.
They murdered police officers Matthew Arnold and Rachel McCrow – along with neighbour Alan Dare – who walked on to their Queensland property in December 2022.
It can also be revealed that after the shooting, Day repeatedly vented online that other extremists had not heeded his calls over eight years to join him in attacking law enforcement officers, complaining that they were “useless pieces of sh*t” with “no heart, no balls, no purpose”.
“The patriot way is to arm up … and provoke the tyrants to come to you. Then it’s killing time. You die, they die,” the 58-year-old said.
In another post, he said: “My wife has a lunch packed for me, my gear is within arm’s reach of me, and my rifle is oiled. I’m ready to head out the door in less than five minutes, 24/7, 365, so what’s it gonna be?”
Day was arrested on December 1 outside a petrol station near his home in Arizona.
Ms Osborne, at his detention hearing on December 5, said the FBI found dugouts and a shipping container set up at his property as fortified sniper spots, as well as body armour and gas masks.
When agents asked him to record a video asking his wife to come out peacefully, Day told them: “If anything happens to my wife, and if I ever get out of these cuffs, I’ll come for every f**king one of you.”
Ms Osborne said that when the agents discussed what would have happened if a SWAT team came to his property, Day said he would have “attempted to kill them” and “they would have been mopping him up” after a shootout.
The prosecutor added that Ms Spires, when later asked the same question, said she would have been “in heaven now with Mr Day, as well as the Trains, essentially referencing that she would have been involved in that fight”.
Day also told the agents of the Trains that he wished he had “been there to kill those f**kers with them so that they weren’t alone”.
In arguing for Day to remain behind bars until his trial, which is set for February, Ms Osborne revealed he had a criminal record from the 1980s that included attacks on law enforcement personnel. She said he was “an extreme danger to the community”.
“The defendant has essentially, in his mind, created a world where there’s evil all around and he is the saviour against that evil,” Ms Osborne said.
“He does not recognise this court as having authority over him.”
Day has been charged with two counts of inciting violence against law enforcement officers as well as the boss of the World Health Organisation.
His legal team on Wednesday filed to have the charges dismissed, in part citing the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment on free speech.
However, Ms Osborne suggested further charges were expected given Day was not legally allowed to own firearms.
Luke Mulligan, Day’s lawyer from the Federal Public Defender’s Office, argued that the allegations put forward by Ms Osborne represented “internet hyperbole, internet venting” and that he was “not a threat to anybody”.
“We have the right to free speech in this country,” he said.
“None of these things she said constitutes a threat.”
Mr Mulligan also argued that the firearms found at Day’s property were owned by Ms Spires.
Federal judge Camille Bibles decided to keep Day behind bars, saying that “the weight of evidence appears to be strong”.
Referencing the “very, very devastating events that occurred in Australia”, Ms Bibles said that he had made “a very specific threat” and that “it does appear that the defendant has prepared for that eventuality”.
“I recognise there is a constitutional right to ideology and beliefs. But it is concerning when that ideology involves really a violent ideology relating to the structures that keep this society functioning,” she said.
Mr Mulligan also told the US District Court of Arizona that Day believed he had brain cancer that had spread to his colon, although he had received treatment from “his wife and a medicine woman” rather than a doctor.
After his arrest, Day did not eat for days and was found unconscious in jail in a pool of blood, and his lawyer said he had to be taken to hospital.
More Coverage
Originally published as Inside chilling FBI interview with American accused of inciting the Wieambilla police killers
Fatal impact of housing scheme
The building industry is suffering a decade-long ‘decimation’ that has ruined lives and left companies in disastrous debt.
Read more
One detail sparks election uproar
A top minister has been grilled on the highly-speculated date of the next election after the 2025 parliamentary sitting calendar dropped a key detail.
Read more