MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — A police officer testified Tuesday he did not know where bullets were coming from as two colleagues were shot in an ambush by three Christian extremists on a rural Australian property two years ago.
Constable Randall Kirk told a coroner’s inquest he was also shot as he fled the property in the Wieambilla region of Queensland state on Dec. 12, 2022, after his colleagues Constable Matthew Arnold and Constable Rachel McCrow had been killed.
They were ambushed by brothers Gareth and Nathaniel Train and Gareth’s wife Stacey Train, conspiracy theorists who hated police, State Coroner Terry Ryan was told.
Ryan is investigating the circumstances of the violence that claimed six lives to determine among other things whether the Trains’ weapons were legally obtained and whether the slain police had been adequately trained and equipped.
The Train couple lived on the property and Nathaniel Train, who had previously been Stacey Train’s husband and had two children with her, was visiting from another state.
The property had several concealed shooting positions and Gareth Train had been warned that police would be visiting in response to a missing person report made by his younger brother’s wife, who cannot be named for legal reasons.
All three Trains were shot dead by police later that day following a six-hour siege. All three were photographed firing rifles at police armored vehicles and ignoring calls to surrender.
A neighbor, Alan Dare, was also shot dead by one of the Trains when he came to investigate the sounds of gunfire and smoke from a burning police car an hour after the initial ambush.
Kirk said he, Arnold, McCrow and Constable Keely Brough all jumped the Trains’ front gate in search of Nathaniel Train less than two minutes before the rifle fire started.
Kirk said he saw no one on the property other than his colleagues when the shooting began.
Arnold was fatally shot in the chest and McCrow was wounded moments later. Brough hid in long grass while Kirk hid behind a tree as rifle shots continued. Kirk said he lay on his stomach “trying not to get shot.”
“I don’t recall seeing anyone,” Kirk said. “I don’t recall where the shots came from.”
Kirk eventually saw at a distance both brothers, who were armed.
A wounded McCrow had fired all 15 bullets in her semi-automatic pistol before Kirk said he saw Gareth Train approach her, exchange words, then fatally shoot her.
Kirk said he then fired his pistol at Gareth Train but missed. Kirk said his pistol was only accurate over 15 meters (yards). Kirk’s gunshot gave away his hiding spot.
“That was a mistake, boys,” one of the Train brothers said, his words recorded by the dead officers’ body-worn cameras.
“Come out and get on the … ground or you die,” a male voice added.
Kirk said he had no option but to run. He heard shots as he ran to a police car parked off the property and later discovered he had a bullet wound to his hip.
Brough remained hidden and was rescued by police backup about two hours after the ambush began.
The lawyer presenting the coroner’s evidence, Ruth O’Gorman, said the inquest would hear a psychiatrist’s evidence that all three Trains were experiencing symptoms of a shared psychiatric disorder.
“They had identical persecutory and religious beliefs that met the psychiatric definition of delusions,” O’Gorman said.
The inquest in the state capital, Brisbane, will continue for five weeks.
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