Two young cops who were gunned down by doomsday preppers had no idea they were walking into an ambush, police have confirmed.
Constables Rachel McCrow, 29, and Matthew Arnold, 26, were shot and killed by three extreme conspiracy theorists on December 12.
Gareth Train, 47, his brother Nathaniel, 46, and his wife Stacey, 45, opened fire as the officers approached their rural home in Wieambilla, three hours west of Brisbane.
Constable Arnold was killed by a single bullet and his housemate McCrow executed by the trio as she lay wounded on the ground.
A third officer, Constable Randall Kirk, was shot in the leg but managed to escape while his rookie colleague Constable Keely Brough fled to safety in bushland.
The Train family members were killed in a ferocious shootout with tactical police later that night after Constable Brough was rescued and the slain officers’ bodies retrieved.
Constables Rachel McCrow, 29 (left) and Matthew Arnold, 26, (right) were both gunned down upon entering Gareth Train’s property in Wieambilla, rural Queensland
Brothers Gareth (left) and Nathaniel Train (back) had been holed up in the Wains Road house armed with a shotgun and two firearms
Deputy Commissioner Tracy Linford on Thursday tried to answer some of the burning questions about how the shooting unfolded.
‘People are asking the question: why and how did this happen? What I can tell you is police had very little history about the Train family,’ she said.
Despite locals claiming they warned police about concerning behaviour, she said there was no intelligence to suggest they were a serious threat.
‘In the scheme of things, this was a run of the mill policing job. our police attend addresses every day of the week and execute warrants,’ she said.
‘Given we had very little history or knowledge [of] any concerning behaviour about Nathaniel Train, there wasn’t anything to flag particular concern with our members who were attending the scene that day.’
Local police got regular training from counter-terrorism officers to spot red flags, but didn’t see any with the Train family.
Deputy Commissioner Linford also dismissed theories that the killers used a missing persons report of Nathaniel Train to lure police into a trap.
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
Nathaniel Train (right), his brother Gavin Train (left) gunned down two police officers and a neighbour
She said the report was made by his wife, who hadn’t seen him in a year, spoken to him since May, and last had email contact in July.
‘We don’t think [that she helped set up police], she had a genuine concern for his wellbeing. She hadn’t spoken to him for some time,’ she said.
Nathaniel’s wife reported him missing to NSW Police, who asked Queensland Police if they could check with his brother and ex-wife (who had since married his brother).
Pictured: The smirking face of evil cop killer Stacey Train
Before they left, the officers checked all three Trains in the police database and found very limited criminal history or concerning behaviour.
Nathaniel had only a 2014 driving offence and an incident on December 17, 2021, where he abandoned two guns at the NSW-Queensland border after crashing his car into a barrier at a Covid checkpoint.
They discovered he had an outstanding warrant from this incident that police tried to speak to him about in August but couldn’t find him, so they took the opportunity to follow that up at the same time.
His firearms licence was also suspended as a result of him abandoning two unsecured guns behind after the border-running incident.
Gareth had only a 1998 offence for possessing a firearm with an expired licence, and Stacey no police history at all.
Deputy Commissioner Linford said four officers went to the property, rather than the usual two, because it was standard procedure when serving a warrant.
The officers knew he was registered firearms owners, but had to reason to suspect they would be shot at as they approached.
Six guns were seized at the property after the shootout – two registered to Nathaniel, three unregistered, and one whose owners was still unknown.
Police also found three compound bows, arrows, and three knives.
Deputy Commissioner Linford said the shooting was not being classes as domestic terrorism, and the family had no links to any organised groups or any indication they were ‘planning something bigger’.
‘There is nothing to indicate there was any other person involved… there were postings to social media sites but we haven’t found any connection to any particular issue-motivated group,’ she said.
She said police saw displays of anti-government, anti-police, and conspiracy theorist sentiment, but nothing to indicate they were ‘inspired’ by anyone to kill police.
However, social media videos and posts by the trio showed they had contact with fellow conspiracy nuts in the US and elsewhere, which police are investigating with the help of American law enforcement.
A funeral service with full police honours was held on Wednesday for Queensland constables Matthew Arnold, 26, and Rachel McCrow, 29
Police were also identifying other people posting on the same sites, and those running, and planned to speak with them as part of the investigation.
Videos emerged of the cop killers discussing deranged theories about religion and death and reading aloud a bizarre handwritten letter.
In one, a woman believed to be Stacey reads out a letter in which she offers another evangelical conspiracy theorist ‘safe refuge’ to stay at her property.
Other videos feature Stacey reading out a lengthy apocalyptic biblical passage, as well as a missing person’s report for Nathaniel delivered in a robotic voice.
After reading out the report, Gareth went on a bizarre rant referring to Nathaniel as ‘a whistleblower on high level corruption within the NSW education department’.
He then refers to ‘connections to the NSW Police organised crime syndicate and the fixated persons branch’ and an ASIO officer posing as a journalist.
The videos reference specific police officers, which Deputy Commissioner Linford said were believed to be those who left answering machine messages or contact cards while trying to find Nathaniel.
Stacey and Gareth Train posted a chilling YouTube video three hours before they were killed in the Wieambilla shootout
A day before the shootout, another video was posted featuring a woman believed to be Stacey as she narrates a letter she has written to a fellow conspiracy theorist
She said local police went to the house on several occasions in August trying to find and speak to him about the incident at the border.
However, no one answered the door or the phone and there was ‘nothing to indicate he was there’ – despite the property being where his car was towed to after it got bogged at the border.
Investigators were reviewing more than 20 calls to Crime Stoppers from after the shooting.
Deputy Commissioner Linford urged the public to dob in to police anyone who displayed anti-government, anti-police, or Covid conspiracy theory rhetoric.
She said it was a very complex investigation and she wanted ‘to manage expectations about getting that why and that how’.
Stacey was once married to Nathaniel Train (pictured on their wedding day) before she married his brother Gareth
Ethical standards command was leading the investigation, assisted by homicide, intelligence, covert online, and counter-terrorism, along with local cops.
Investigators were trying to create a timeline of their activities in the weeks and months leading up to the shooting.
This involved taking statements from dozens of people including friends, associates, neighbours, past employers, and locals, as well as combing through their bank accounts and phone records for clues.
Specialist officers were also trawling social media trying to understand the Trains and find anything about them.
Deputy Commissioner Linford said there were ‘names other than the Train family names’ that were of interest.
