It started with four police officers walking up a bush driveway on a routine general duties job – and ended with six dead and many more traumatised.
New details can be revealed of how the ambush of a team of four Police officers unfolded at a remote property at Wieambilla, west of at about 4.30pm on Monday afternoon.
The officers attended a property on Wains Road after being asked by their NSW Police colleagues to check on missing school principal Nathaniel Train.
Mr Train hadn’t been seen in a year but had been speaking to his family before contact suddenly stopped in October.The officers headed to the remote bush home owned by Nathaniel’s brother Gareth Train and his wife Stacey as they believed he had been living there.
It is understood Constable Rachel McCrow, 29, and Constable Matthew Arnold, 26, arrived in the first vehicle, and met up with a second car containing Constable Keely Brough and Constable Randall Kirk, both aged 28, before approaching the property.
McCrow and Arnold then honked their horn to alert the residents of their presence.When there was no movement from inside the house, the four officers got out of their cars and jumped over the locked fence.
Seconds later, a shower of bullets descended on the four officers, believed to have been fired by Nathaniel and Gareth Train and Gareth’s wife Stacey.
Constance McCrow and Constable Arnold were instantly hit, and fell to the ground.
Four officers had attended a property on Wains Road, in Wieambilla, west of Brisbane, on Monday at about 4.30pm, after being asked by their colleagues in NSW to check on missing man Nathaniel Train. Two officers were shot dead
Police had attended the Queensland property as part of inquiries into missing man Nathaniel Train (pictured), last seen in Dubbo in central-west NSW a year ago
A third officer, Constable Randall Kirk, 28, and a soon to be father-of-two, was shot in the leg but managed to escape.He is now recovering in hospital.
The fourth cop, Keely Brough, 28, was able to escape to hide in nearby bushes as the gunmen tried to hunt her down.
The killers moved on the injured police officers and shot them dead, point-blank while stealing their guns while Ms Brough scrambled away.
The terrified officer texted her loved ones telling them she felt her time was nearly up.The murderous trio then set fire to the bush in a bid to flush her out.
An innocent bystander, Alan Dare, 58, who lived next door raced over after hearing the commotion but died after being caught in the crossfire.
At 6pm on Monday police declared an emergency declaration zone around the property.
Constable Brough was able to keep in contact with her colleagues as she hid in grasses near the property, before she was later rescued by a specialist police tactical team which had scrambled to the scene.
The shooters’ reign of terror lasted for several more hours until they were eventually gunned down by a squad of 16 crack officers at about 10.30pm local time.
Constables Rachel McCrow, 29 (left) and Matthew Arnold, 26, (right) were both gunned down upon entering Gareth Train’s property in Wieambilla, rural Queensland
The property, owned by Gareth, who spoke of prepping his home for an apocalypse, and his wife Stacey was well off the grid, had extensive solar panels and water tanks
Four officers were at this Wains Road property at Wieambilla when they were fired upon
Ms Brough was taken to hospital shortly after being rescued by her colleagues and has since been released.
Daily Mail Australia earlier unveiled a series of bizarre and deranged posts made by Gareth in the comments sections of fringe news websites.
In one online rant, Gareth wrote that the Australian government was responsible for the Port Arthur Massacre, where 35 people were killed in Tasmania in 1996.
‘Anyone who watched the live media coverage at the time and was aware of the political deceit lead up knows that this was a Government Psychological Operation to disarm the Australian population,’ he wrote in November 2020.
Just two months earlier Gareth had claimed ‘chemical agents’ had been dropped over Australia, covering large parts of NSW, Victoria and Queensland.’We are now being poisoned and chemically manipulated on a massive scale,’ he wrote.
Gareth also regularly shared his mistrust for the Queensland Special Emergency Response Team (SERT) – the same team that arrived at his home and shot him dead.
One of the two surviving officers, Constable Keeley Brough (pictured) fled into surrounding bushland, where she texted family members in the belief she was going to die, and urgently calling for help
A third officer, Constable Randall Kirk, 28, and a soon to be father-of-two, was shot in the leg but managed to escape.He is now recovering in hospital
Neighbour Alan Dare (pictured) was shot dead by the armed trio after he went to investigate the gunshots
‘The state sponsored terrorising squaddies – SOG, SERT and other special people are but government paramilitary hammers,’ he said in September last year.
Nathaniel Train (pictured), had worked as the principal at several schools around Queensland and NSW
His most outrageous claims were from April last year where he spoke of an ‘occult blood sacrifice’, which he claimed was responsible for the death of Princess Diana and 9/11.
‘Most don’t accept Princess Diana’s death was an Occult blood sacrifice to spellbind or the blood sacrifice of 9/11 or the War machine,’ he said.
‘Occult blood sacrifice runs hand in glove with Occult money magick.’ Occult refers to the practices of supernatural beliefs.
Gareth also claimed social media was ‘embedded with Lucifarian spellbinding’.
He also wrote an anti-vaccination post, while in another he spoke about his thoughts on Queensland which he referred to as the ‘bad lands’.
Online, he said he had been ‘ark homesteading for the past five years preparing to survive tomorrow’ – although said he was happy to live in Queensland despite its apparent faults.
‘Bad cops, bad mobile service, bad roads, bad council, bad ice addicts, bad youth crime …but still the best spot to be living free.’
Gareth had a strong dislike for the police force and an obsession with alleged re-education camps.
On a thread about trains, Gareth wrote: ‘Re-education camps are located at the end of the line.Monitoring the rail system will ensure no escape. Dissenters will find themselves catching the long black train.’
Meanwhile, his brother, Nathaniel Train, was a very highly regarded teacher who was hailed by his colleagues for his work with children, raising standards and dramatically improving exam results.
People are seen paying their respects outside the Chinchilla Police station in Queensland after two officers were killed
Bouquets of flowers and teddy bears have been left behind at the Chinchilla police station
He was well-loved as principal at Yorkeys Knob State School near Cairns where he was principal for about five years – after joining from Innisfail East State School where he was principal since 2011.
He was most recently the Executive Principal at Walgett Community College Primary School.
‘He made Yorkeys the highest performing NAPLAN school in far north Queensland,’ one former colleague told Daily Mail Australia on Tuesday.
Nathaniel hadn’t been seen since last December but was in contact with his family up until October.He was reported missing on December 4.
The former principal left Walgett in August last year after suffering a major heart attack.
He had to be revived by staff at the school with his mental health reportedly deteriorated significantly after he left.
Stacey Train was also an educator, and the head of curriculum at the Tara Shire State College.
She also ran to be the representative of the Western Downs branch of the Queensland teachers union.
The community is mourning the loss of two officers gunned down on the job