The final shootout between police and three radicalised murderers at a remote property near Wieambilla was the most dangerous operation ever undertaken by Queensland’s specialist tactical police, an inquest into the deadly ambush has heard.
Supt Tim Partridge, who now runs the Special Emergency Response Team (Sert), said the task would have been less risky if police had access to superior tactics such as the use of a sniper from a helicopter, and more reliable communications.
Timeline
Wieambilla shootings
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Nathaniel Train reported missing to NSW police. There is also a warrant out for his arrest on firearms charges. This is referred to Queensland police.
Gareth is informed by email about the missing person’s report and responds with a message including anti-police comments.
Job assigned to Chinchilla police, who seek assistance from Tara police. Four police travel to the property.
4.35pm
Constables Matthew Arnold, Rachel McCrow, Randall Kirk and Keely Brough arrive at 251 Wains Road, Wieambilla.
4.37pm
Nathaniel Train shoots Const Arnold dead from a prepared ambush position, known as a “hide”.
4.46pm
Const McCrow, who had been wounded by rifle fire, is shot dead at close range by Gareth Train. She pleads for her life.
5.30pm
Civilian Alan Dare killed by a gunshot to the torso from an unknown Train after going to the property to fight a fire. Wife Kelly is not told of the shooting incident during a 000 call.
5.30pm
Police issue public service preservation act warning for the Wieambilla area, banning civilian movement.
6.37pm
Const Brough rescued by uniformed police extraction team. They also remove bodies of McCrow and Arnold, but not Dare.
7.40pm
Police special emergency response team arrive and take over the police inner cordon.
10.39pm
Last of the Trains, Nathaniel, is killed by operators from the police special emergency response team. Massacre ends.
“It’s my view that the Sert response to the Wieambilla incident was the most dangerous operations that Sert’s ever been involved in, certainly in my experience, and the risk to Sert operators was extreme,” he said.
“I felt there was a high risk, a high likelihood, we could lose a Sert operator during that response.”
The “number of offenders”, their weapons, the amount of time they had to prepare and “their intense motivation to kill police” all contributed to the risk, he said.
On the afternoon of 12 December 2022, Stacey, Nathaniel and Gareth Train shot and killed two general duties police officer, Matthew Arnold and Rachel McCrow after laying in wait at their property, west of Brisbane, the inquest has heard. They later shot civilian Alan Dare.
The inquest has heard the trio believed a variety of conspiracy theories, expressed a dislike for police, and subscribed to a fundamentalist version of Christianity, believing in an extreme form of “premillennialism”.
Sert, which is based in Brisbane, was called to contain and arrest the Trains. The team arrived that evening, after Arnold, McCrow and Dare had been killed.
On day eight of the inquest, Partridge told the state coroner, Terry Ryan, that he was concerned the trio would try to escape from the scene, increasing the risk to civilians.
“Who shoots police and just sits there and waits?,” Partridge said.
As a result of his concerns, he ordered several Sert teams into close cordon positions before initiating negotiations.
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Ultimately attempts at negotiations failed, Partridge said, with the Trains firing on officers until they were all killed by return fire at about 10.38pm.
Echoing the testimony of other officers who have appeared at the inquest, Partridge said Sert was hindered by poor communications, and there was a risk the Trains might have been using radios stolen from McCrow and Arnold to listen in. Typically most communications had to go via the police helicopter. The police service has since spent “a “significant amount” of money to improve radio communications, he said.
The response was also hampered by an inability to fire from a moving helicopter, Partridge said.
He said Sert officers were trained to do so, but none of the helicopters available offered that capability.
“Had we been able to put a marksman in an aircraft, that would have substantially reduced the risk to Sert operators in this incident,” he said.
“There are other Sert responses that I’ve been part of where similarly I would have put a marksman in an aircraft had I had the ability to do so. That capability exists in other states.”
Partridge said police didn’t have the option of using less lethal means such as Tasers or teargas, and had no choice but to aim for the head when returning fire on the Trains. Ultimately, all three were killed by headshots.
“The Sert operators delivered exactly what I asked them to deliver,” he said.
“There wasn’t a moment’s hesitation, there wasn’t any querying … there was a very good chance that someone would be shot and killed and yet nobody, not one of them, hesitated.”
The inquest continues.