Coroner to hand down findings into deadly Wieambilla terror attack which killed two police constables, Good Samaritan neighbours

A coroner’s findings into a religiously-motivated terror attack where two police officers and a Good Samaritan neighbour were murdered in cold blood will be released today. The final hearing and delivery of State Coroner Terry Ryan’s official findings into the bloody massacre at Wieambilla on December 12, 2022, will mark the final stage of a lengthy inquest which ran for several months over 2024. Queensland Police constables Rachel McCrow, 29, and Matthew Arnold, 26, were shot dead by members of the Train family – brothers Nathaniel and Gareth and his wife, Stacey – while performing a welfare check on Nathaniel at the property, in Queensland’s Western Downs region, that year. The two officers and constables Keely Brough and Randall Kirk had unknowingly walked into a trap set by the Train family and were met by gunfire within minutes of entering the property. Constable Kirk was injured after fleeing gunfire from the Trains while Constable Brough fled into bushland – the Trains lighting fires on the property in a bid to flush her out. Neighbour Alan Dare was murdered by the family while investigating these fires. Nathaniel, Gareth and Stacey were all shot dead by Special Emergency Response Team (SERT) officers later in the night, following a lengthy standoff. Harrowing evidence was given by surviving police officers, senior police figures and experts during the inquest, which finished in late August 2024. It was examining a range of issues related to the attendance of constables Arnold, McCrow, Kirk and Brough at the Wains Rd property, who exactly fired the shots that killed constables McCrow and Arnold and Mr Dare, the communication between NSW Police and Queensland Police in relation to Nathaniel’s missing person’s report, the motivations of the Train family and whether any policy changes could prevent similar deaths in the future, among other issues. At its conclusion Ruth O’Gorman, counsel assisting the coroner, made several recommendations for Mr Ryan to consider ahead of his official findings being delivered. One included recommending the Queensland government implement mandatory mental health assessments for weapons licence applicants. Mr Ryan is expected to hand down his findings at 11.30am at Brisbane Coroners Court. Inside delusional worldview of homicidal killers Queensland Police SERT officers try to negotiate with the Train family after they murdered two police officers and a civilian at Wieambilla in December 2022. Nathaniel, Gareth and Tracey had been living “off-grid” with little electricity and tank water ahead of the attack, while stockpiling weapons and fortifying their Wains Rd property. This included the construction of sniper hides along the property’s bushland, an “observation point” and the alteration of a curve in the track leading to their house, which the inquest was told was built to limit the manoeuvrability of approaching vehicles. Consultant forensic psychiatrist Dr Andrew Aboud gave evidence he found the Trains had been experiencing the symptoms of a shared psychotic disorder. He opined they were suffering from identical persecutory and religious beliefs and delusions at the time of the ambush. Gareth was the primary and Stacey and Nathaniel were acting as secondaries to the shared delusion, Dr Aboud explained. POLAIR vision has revealed the tense final moments during the shootout at Wieambilla The trio’s delusions primarily focused around his obsession with “neurological bioweapons”, “religions” and his distrust of authorities. Dr Aboud gave evidence these delusions progressed from the conspiracies about CIA-run military program MKUltra, to weapons manufacturer Raytheon, to believing the Covid-19 vaccination was a way for the government to target the population. Gareth began to view believe the vaccines were turning people into “non-humans” wearing “meat suits”. Before the shootings, he sent a series of emails warning he and Nathaniel would be ready to greet the “bully men” (a slang term for police) … as they deserve” and said: “If trouble arrives on my doorstep, it will be dealt with forthwith, as it always has”. Slain constables’ families reveal grief The murders of constables Arnold and McCrow and Mr Dare led to an outpouring of grief across the nation, sparking calls for a national gun register and database. Members of the Arnold and McCrow family are expected to respond to the findings later in the day. Following the conclusion of the inquest last year, Dr Judy McCrow, the mother of constable McCrow, said August 30 – her daughter’s birthday – would always be a day marked by “impossible grief”. The McCrow and Arnold families say there was “no escaping our devastating loss" after Constables Rachel McCrow and Matthew Arnold were killed at Wieambilla. “Not only for the loss of our beautiful ‘Rach’ but for the many years of promise we’d looked forward to sharing with her as a family,” Dr McCrow said. “Time isn’t healing our wounds, our trauma remains intense, and our memories are so hard to let go of. “We can’t escape the fallout from the calculated, premeditated evil which claimed Rachel on December 12, 2022, at Wieambilla.” Dr McCrow said Rachel deserved “open disclosure and full transparency” about what happened that day, saying the inquest had exposed the many despicable, disgusting and hate-filled acts which so brutally ended Rachel’s hopes and ambitions” to the public. In a similar vein, constable Arnold’s mother, Sue, said the pain of losing her son – who was a triplet – never fades. “Our pain in losing Matt isn’t a singular event … it never fades, has become a constant presence,” Ms Arnold said. “Each day brings a fresh reminder of what’s being lost, a stark realisation that he is gone. “Each anniversary of Matt’s death starts a regular chain of misery and missed family events.”