Police caught in ‘fatal funnel’ of gunfire as they arrived at scene of Wieambilla massacre, inquest hears
The first police officers who responded to emergency calls from their colleagues ambushed by the Wieambilla killers were forced to flee because they were caught in a “fatal funnel” and a “fire lane” and were too exposed to do anything, an inquest has heard.
Five police responders on Thursday gave evidence at the fourth day of the coronial inquest into the massacre.
Led by Queensland coroner Terry Ryan, the inquest is investigating the deaths of police constables Rachel McCrow and Matthew Arnold and civilian neighbour Alan Dare, at the property in Wieambilla, western Queensland, at the hands of Nathaniel, Gareth and Stacey Train on 12 December 2022. The court has heard the trio were conspiracy theorists who planned to kill police.
Dalby police officer Const Mathew Gary Owen told the inquest he and Const Christopher Sharman drove to the Wieambilla property from Dalby with lights and sirens blazing. Under normal circumstance the town is nearly an hour and 15 minutes drive away, but the trip took them just 45 minutes, the court heard.
The court was played body worn camera footage which showed the first time they were alerted to the shootings at 251 Wains Road.
“Urgent, urgent shots fired,” was heard over the police radio, at about 4.41pm.
“Shot fired at police”
“Officer down, she is stranded, nil radio”.
At that time, officer Keely Brough was still concealed in grass on the property, while the Trains continued to stalk her.
The court has previously heard that civilian Alan Dare and Victor Lewis were fired on at the property, with Dare killed, just before 5.30pm. They had visited the address to check on a fire, after his wife, Kelly Dare, called triple zero. None of them were warned of the danger.
Owen and Sharman found an officer from nearby Tara, Const Craig Loveland, already waiting at a pre-planned muster point around the corner from the property.
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They went to the property and ran into Lewis who told them his friend, Dare, had been shot and needed ambulance assistance. The court heard his car was just 20 metres away at the time and the police believed the area was being covered by the Trains.
“We had Glocks (pistols) that, maybe, would be effective to sort of 10 meters, 15 meters. They had rifles shooting at a much farther distance. And we were stationary, in what I would call just a fatal funnel, a massive fire lane, essentially, “Owen said.
Sharman and Loveland said they had not been rifle trained at the time.
The court heard Arnold – killed instantly by the Trains’ first shot – was the only rifle-trained officer at Tara police station.
Body-worn camera footage shows Loveland instructed Lewis to “get out of here” before getting back in his vehicle and reversing off.
The operation took place in a known radio black spot, and wounded officers were unable to raise police communications on the radio, the inquest has heard. They instead used their personal mobile phones.
Loveland was also called to the scene, while at the Tara police station.
He was delayed by the need to reinstall the battery in the station’s only other vehicle. Loveland said his vehicle had been mechanically faulty for months.
He testified that at times the station had only a single officer rostered on – including the morning of 12 December, when he had to call in Arnold then McCrow to respond to a domestic violence incident, a suicide attempt and a report of an armed person.
Loveland said many properties in the remote areas around Tara, known as the “blocks”, had signs reading “don’t enter or you’ll be shot” because they wanted to discourage others from coming on to their land.
“Certain addresses in the blocks had flags in regards to man traps otherwise known as booby traps you’d find pits spikes other things around the blocks on certain properties generally to injure persons entering,” he said.
On Wednesday the court heard from survivor Victor Lewis, another neighbour, who was standing next to Dare when he died. He said police ought to have warned them not to attend the property, perhaps by employing the emergency community alert system used in natural disasters.
Insp Wayne Rasmussen, who served as the police forward commander during the incident, said he hadn’t considered using the system at the time.
“That program, the process was owned by Queensland fires, and so I would have had to have sought approval from higher up,” he said.
“It takes around about, from my previous experiences, 45 minutes for that community alert.”
Instead he issued a public safety declaration banning residents from entering the area or leaving their homes, at 5.27pm. The declaration was issued through police social media channels.
It didn’t mention that shots had been fired.
“I asked not to because it was way to early for me in terms of my appreciation and situational awareness,” he said.
“The messaging would have been along the lines of ‘there was an incident occurring within that boundar,y residents are asked remain in place and, if outside the area, not to enter’.”
The court has heard that Dare died at about 5.30pm.
The inquest continues.