The cold-blooded murders of two Queensland Police officers and a Good Samaritan will be brought under intense scrutiny as part of a criminal investigation into the horrors at a remote Western Downs property.
Coroner Terry Ryan has been appointed to conduct a month-long inquest from Monday which will examine the horrific massacre that took place in Wyambela on December 12, 2022.
Police officers Rachel McCraw, 29, and Matthew Arnold, 26, were killed by members of the Train family – brothers Nathaniel and Gareth and his wife Stacey – after attending a welfare check at a Wains Rd property.
The two officers arrived at the property with two other officers – Constables Kelly Brough and Randa Kirk – after Nathaniel, a former New South Wales school principal, was reported missing.
However, when the four officers arrived, they were met with gunfire, killing two of them, wounding Constable Kirk, and sending Constable Prue fleeing into the bushes as bullets flew.
Policewoman Proof was then forced to hide from her attackers who tried to break her out of prison.
The trains also set fire to police cars.
Alan Deer, 58, lived in a nearby property and came to check on the area after seeing smoke rising.
He was killed by a train moments after he arrived to see if he could help.
It was learned that he was shot in the back, which led to his death.
The SWAT officers shot all three members of the Train family after a long siege.
Months after the massacre, Queensland Police confirmed that the gang members had embraced an extremist Christian ideology known as “pre-Christian millenarianism”, and were operating as an “independent cell” to carry out their “religiously motivated terrorist attack”.
Pre-Christian premillennialists believe that Jesus Christ will return to earth after a period of great suffering.
After the murders, investigators discovered notes from Stacey in which she called police “devils.”
Gareth and Stacey also confessed to killing the police officers in a horrific YouTube video uploaded just hours after the shooting but before they were shot dead.
Their religious beliefs and the reasons for the killings are among the nine issues that assistant coroner Ruth O’Gorman is due to examine when the inquest begins in Brisbane on Monday.
Ms O’Gorman intends to call more than 60 witnesses to give evidence to the inquiry.
Witnesses are expected to include Queensland Police officers, academic experts and family members.
The inquest will look into the circumstances of the six deaths, why four police officers attended the Wembella property in the first place and what communications they received from NSW Police.
Nathaniel Train will also be investigated for illegally entering Queensland when he crossed the closed border at Tallwood from NSW during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The former school principal has been reported missing by his estranged wife in New South Wales.
Police also issued an arrest warrant for him in connection with firearms offences after he left his weapons abandoned when he illegally crossed the border.
It is understood he was living with or near his brother and Stacey, who was previously married to Nathaniel.
Queensland Police Deputy Commissioner Tracey Linford told media in February 2023 that Chinchilla Police were tasked with trying to find Nathaniel after he was reported missing.
An officer had come to Gareth and Stacey’s home to find Nathaniel long before it became clear that the threat was imminent.
“They (the Train family) knew that Nathaniel had been reported as a missing person, and they were also aware that police were trying to locate him in relation to firearms offences,” Ms Linford said.
“I don’t think there’s any doubt that they would have known that at some point in time the police would come, but whether or not they expected that it would happen on that particular day, we won’t say.
“From the way they organized their belongings, there were clear indications that they had done a lot of planning.”
Another consideration will focus on the “adequacy and appropriateness” of Queensland Police’s response to the shooting, including whether the advice given to Constables Kirk and Brough was appropriate and whether the recovery and extraction team acted appropriately.
The officers’ surveillance cameras revealed what happened when they arrived at the remote property, which helped in the investigation and preparation for the investigation.
At a pre-inquest hearing in June 2023, Ms O’Gorman told the court that Constables McCraw and Arnold had their body cameras turned on when they jumped the fence at the Waynes Road property on the afternoon of December 12.
“The officers’ body camera footage showed that they had no interactions with people on the property,” she said.
