A senior officer would have been alerted to a family of killers “fixated” on police if he had access to interstate reports ahead of a fatal ambush of uniformed colleagues, a coroner has been told.
Brothers Nathaniel, 46, and Gareth Train, 47, opened fire on four junior constables as they walked up the driveway of a remote property at Wieambilla, west of Brisbane, late in the afternoon of December 12, 2022.
State Coroner Terry Ryan previously heard NSW Police Detective Senior Constable Tim Montgomery contacted Chinchilla officers near Wieambilla asking if they could attend the property for a missing persons “welfare check” on Nathaniel Train, but did not share the latest police reports.
Some of the reports summarised emails from Gareth Train telling his brother officers wanted to “see you dead” and vowing to “greet them as they deserve” if they turned up to his remote bush property.
Queensland Detective Chief Inspector Garry Watts testified in Brisbane Coroners Court on Wednesday he would have held back officers from attending the Wieambilla property if he had seen the emails.
Det Insp Watts was the operations manager for the police southwest district that included Wieambilla at the time of the shootings.
“The last two emails, if brought to my attention, would have required further investigation before attending,” he said.
The detective said he would have referred the emails to the Brisbane-based Queensland Fixated Threat Assessment Centre for its opinion on the contents.
Det Insp Watts agreed the centre’s work “includes people fixated on police” as well as politicians and public figures.
Nathaniel Train had been reported missing in NSW nearly three weeks before the shootings and had an outstanding arrest warrant for Queensland offences.
The Train brothers used high-powered rifles to kill officers Matthew Arnold, 26, and Rachel McCrow, 29, during the ambush while Randall Kirk retreated under fire and Keely Brough hid for more than two hours.
Det Insp Watts said he could not see a threat to police in the emails despite Gareth Train claiming in the messages people he knew were working with officers on a plan to kill his brother.
“SERT (Special Emergency Response Team) would not have been engaged just on that information alone,” Det Insp Watts said.
The specialist Queensland team can deploy heavily armed officers in armoured vehicles and the unit was sent to the scene after the Trains had killed three people.
Mr Ryan heard a more in-depth background check of the Trains before the shootings would not have produced police files that labelled them a terrorist threat.
Det Insp Watts said there was “no rush” on Nathaniel Train’s missing persons case and he would have at least consulted with his detectives if given access to the full NSW police report.
Queensland Senior Constable Stephanie Abbott said she would not have instructed junior officers to go to the Wieambilla property if she saw Gareth Train’s emails.
“In (your prior interview) you said there were literally a million other things you would have done? Some of the other things you mentioned were getting intel, speaking to counterterrorism, speaking to other Train family members?” Sen Const Abbott was asked.
“Yes,” she said.
Sen Const Abbott said she did background checks and passed on the relevant information she had about the Trains at the time to the officers in an email, including that Nathaniel Train had a licence for two rifles and a shotgun.
“I said ‘if it gets too dark, don’t go down there in the dark’,” Sen Const Abbott said.
Nathaniel Train joined Gareth and his sibling’s wife Stacey, 45, to kill neighbour Alan Dare, 58, soon after fatally shooting the two constables.
All three Trains were shot dead by specialist officers hours later after they refused to negotiate or surrender.
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