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Six people, including two cops, were killed in an hourslong standoff in a remote area of Australia on Monday night.
Four officers from the Tara Police Station had arrived to a property in rural Wieambilla in Queensland around 4:45 p.m. to investigate a report of a missing person, Queensland Police confirmed early Tuesday.
Constables Matthew Arnold, 26, and Rachel McCrow, 29, were shot and killed as they approached the address, authorities said. A third officer was injured.
The shooting gave way to six-hour siege, during which the suspects killed neighbor Alan Sure, 58, who came over to investigate the commotion, officials said.
The standoff ended when tactical police shot and killed all three suspects, one of whom was identified as Nathaniel Train, 46, the missing person who police were sent to check on.
A former school principal, Train was last seen in New South Wales in December 2021 but was in contact with his family as recently as this past October.
He was killed alongside his brother Gareth Train, 47, and sister-in-law Stacey Train, 45.
The incident is the Queensland force’s largest loss of life in several years.
“Those officers did not stand a chance. The fact that two got out alive is a miracle,” Queensland Police Commissioner Katarina Carroll told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
Queensland Police Union President Ian Leavers described to ABC how the uninjured officer, rookie Constable Keely Brough, bravely held her ground when the suspects tried to lure her by lighting a fire.
“She did not know whether she was going to be shot or [if] she was going to burned alive,” he said. “She was sending messages to loved ones saying she was at a point where she thought it was her time.”
A candlelit vigil in Brisbane has been planned for both Constables Arnold and McCrow.
“To know that [McCrow and Arnold] are no longer with us in what was a ruthless, calculated and targeted execution of our colleagues and loved ones brings home the very real risks that we face every single day doing our jobs,” Leavers lamented.
“Just such a tragedy. This should never happen. It was completely unexpected.”
Investigators are now looking into Gareth Train, who frequently contributed paranoid posts to conspiracy blogs. According to the Guardian, he expressed distrust of police and believed the 1996 Port Arthur massacre – the mass shooting that resulted in Australia’s stringent gun laws – was a “‘false-flag operation,” or an event that is secretly committed by one group to pin the blame on another.
He co-owned the Wieambilla property with his wife. In one 2021 post, he claimed to be “‘building an ‘ark’[,] homesteading for the last five years preparing to survive tomorrow.’”
Nathaniel Train reportedly went off the map after his mental health deteriorated in the wake of a heart attack.
“[We’re] definitely investigating every avenue – whether it [was] premeditated, some of the stuff that’s been online from these people,” Commissioner Carroll told ABC. “We will investigate what they have been doing, not only in recent weeks but in recent years.”
While the investigation gets under way, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese shared his condolences on social media.
“Terrible scenes in Wieambilla and a heartbreaking day for the families and friends of the Queensland Police officers who have lost their lives in the line of duty,” he wrote. “My condolences to all who are grieving tonight – Australia mourns with you.”
Opposition leader Peter Dutton, a former Queensland police officer, also shared his sympathy on Twitter.
“Deeply distressing news coming out of western Queensland tonight with those police officers who have been murdered,” his post reads. “Police officers face danger every day to keep us from it.”
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