A coroner has heard that the family who shot and killed two police officers and a neighbor believed they would “die fighting for God” in an act that qualified as terrorism.
Josh Roose, a politics professor at Deakin University, spoke to State Coroner Terry Ryan today regarding the political, religious, and ideological factors that contributed to the six-person rural Queensland shooting massacre.
On December 12, 2022, near Wieambilla, west of Brisbane, police constables Matthew Arnold, 26, and Rachel McCrow, 29, were shot and killed without warning by Nathaniel Train, 47, his brother Gareth, 46, and his sibling’s wife Stacey, 45.
Roose testified that Gareth Train was an angry man who felt powerless.
“He saw the world as corrupt, people behind the scenes were pulling the strings and he had a role to combat that,” he stated.
According to what the coroner heard, Gareth corresponded with movements and fringe political parties like the sovereign citizens, who don’t recognize the law but quit because they thought it was dull.
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According to Roose, Gareth wrote, “Queensland Police have the opportunity to be on the right side or face execution,” on an internet forum.
A forensic doctor had earlier told the coroner that the Trains had a “shared psychotic disorder,” with Gareth being the main victim.
Although Roose acknowledged that viewpoint, he concluded that their actions constituted “the definition of a terrorist act” since Gareth adopted conspiracy theories and the extreme Christian premillennialist conviction that the world would end in the first half of 2023.
Stacey had meticulously crafted a timeline among her notes. She tried for hours and hours to figure out when this would happen,” Roose remarked.
In order to ensure the family’s salvation during “ideologically motivated terrorism” in the form of a fight with “devils and demons” at the second coming of Jesus Christ, he claimed the Trains had taken shifts as concealed snipers rather than luring police to their land.
“They were online that morning … trying to recruit a woman to come to Australia,” said Roose.
Four junior police came at the bush block property west of Brisbane to serve Nathaniel with an arrest warrant, which sparked the shooting. Before the police’s Special Emergency Response Team (SERT) killed the Trains later that evening, the brothers shot and killed their neighbor Alan Dare, 58.
Superintendent Tim Partridge, the commander of SERT, came back to testify, stating that he would have benefited from having a sharpshooter stationed in a helicopter above the Trains’ land.
“We were significantly hindered … the officers in the armoured vehicles were unable to get a clear shot in order to engage because they were cowering behind logs and in defensive positions,” he stated.
If the Trains had tried to escape in a car, Partridge said “helicopter fire support” might have been the only way to swiftly put an end to them.
Ryan had heard that the state of Queensland was the only one without police snipers mounted on helicopters or in the process of acquiring such equipment.
Christian Gericke provided testimony today regarding the possibility of brain injury in Nathaniel and how it may have impacted his behavior or led to psychosis.
Ryan had already learned that sixteen months prior to the shootings, Nathaniel had a heart attack and required resuscitation.
After having a heart attack, Nathaniel gave up his lucrative teaching job and crossed the NSW–QLD border illegally while there were COVID-19 lockdowns in place, carrying a stash of weapons.
After looking over Nathaniel’s medical records, Gericke claimed to have discovered “positive evidence” refuting the theory that the cardiac arrest-related oxygen shortage did not cause an irreversible brain lesion.
“There is very good evidence Train did not suffer from this,” he stated.
During Nathaniel’s autopsy, Gericke stated that “large parts” of his brain were accessible for testing, providing the most precise results for physical evidence of hypoxia ischemic encephalopathy.
“The bullet was the only object that caused harm. That did some harm,” he remarked.
An expert tells the inquest that the Wieambilla shooting was “ideological terrorism.”
A coroner has heard that the family who shot and killed two police officers and a neighbor believed they would “die fighting for God” in an act that qualified as terrorism.
Josh Roose, a politics professor at Deakin University, spoke to State Coroner Terry Ryan today regarding the political, religious, and ideological factors that contributed to the six-person rural Queensland shooting massacre.
On December 12, 2022, near Wieambilla, west of Brisbane, police constables Matthew Arnold, 26, and Rachel McCrow, 29, were shot and killed without warning by Nathaniel Train, 47, his brother Gareth, 46, and his sibling’s wife Stacey, 45.
Roose testified that Gareth Train was an angry man who felt powerless.
“He saw the world as corrupt, people behind the scenes were pulling the strings and he had a role to combat that,” he stated.
According to what the coroner heard, Gareth corresponded with movements and fringe political parties like the sovereign citizens, who don’t recognize the law but quit because they thought it was dull.
Noam Chomsky, known as “the father of modern linguistics,” lists the five books he believes will transform your life.
According to Roose, Gareth wrote, “Queensland Police have the opportunity to be on the right side or face execution,” on an internet forum.
A forensic doctor had earlier told the coroner that the Trains had a “shared psychotic disorder,” with Gareth being the main victim.
Although Roose acknowledged that viewpoint, he concluded that their actions constituted “the definition of a terrorist act” since Gareth adopted conspiracy theories and the extreme Christian premillennialist conviction that the world would end in the first half of 2023.
Stacey had meticulously crafted a timeline among her notes. She tried for hours and hours to figure out when this would happen,” Roose remarked.
In order to ensure the family’s salvation during “ideologically motivated terrorism” in the form of a fight with “devils and demons” at the second coming of Jesus Christ, he claimed the Trains had taken shifts as concealed snipers rather than luring police to their land.
“They were online that morning … trying to recruit a woman to come to Australia,” said Roose.
Four junior police came at the bush block property west of Brisbane to serve Nathaniel with an arrest warrant, which sparked the shooting.
Before the police’s Special Emergency Response Team (SERT) killed the Trains later that evening, the brothers shot and killed their neighbor Alan Dare, 58.
Superintendent Tim Partridge, the commander of SERT, came back to testify, stating that he would have benefited from having a sharpshooter stationed in a helicopter above the Trains’ land.
“We were significantly hindered … the officers in the armoured vehicles were unable to get a clear shot in order to engage because they were cowering behind logs and in defensive positions,” he stated.
If the Trains had tried to escape in a car, Partridge said “helicopter fire support” might have been the only way to swiftly put an end to them.
Ryan had heard that the state of Queensland was the only one without police snipers mounted on helicopters or in the process of acquiring such equipment.
Christian Gericke provided testimony today regarding the possibility of brain injury in Nathaniel and how it may have impacted his behavior or led to psychosis.
Ryan had already learned that sixteen months prior to the shootings, Nathaniel had a heart attack and required resuscitation.
After having a heart attack, Nathaniel gave up his lucrative teaching job and crossed the NSW–QLD border illegally while there were COVID-19 lockdowns in place, carrying a stash of weapons.
After looking over Nathaniel’s medical records, Gericke claimed to have discovered “positive evidence” refuting the theory that the cardiac arrest-related oxygen shortage did not cause an irreversible brain lesion.
“There is very good evidence Train did not suffer from this,” he stated.
During Nathaniel’s autopsy, Gericke stated that “large parts” of his brain were accessible for testing, providing the most precise results for physical evidence of hypoxia ischemic encephalopathy.
“The bullet was the only object that caused harm. That did some harm,” he remarked.
