Surrender negotiations met with gunfire at Wieambilla

Three people who gunned down two officers and a civilian were repeatedly told to put their hands up and weapons down before specialist police fatally shot them.

“I can’t guarantee your safety if you keep shooting at us,” a police negotiator says in audio recordings played on Wednesday to an inquest into deaths at a Wieambilla property on December 12, 2022.

“Nathaniel, Gareth and Stacey ... we need you to put your firearms down, put your weapons on the ground,” Senior Constable Will Goodwin says.

Constables Matthew Arnold and Rachel McCrow and neighbour Alan Dare had been killed when ambushed and shot by Nathaniel, Gareth and Stacey Train at the property in the Western Downs area, west of Brisbane.

Sen Sgt Goodwin used a loud hailer from inside an armoured vehicle after the bodies of the two police officers had been removed from the property.

The inquest has been told the Trains responded to negotiation attempts by firing at police.

Several shots hit the windscreen of the vehicle in which Sen Sgt Goodwin was travelling.

Superintendent Timothy Partridge told the coroner about his decision to send specialist officers into a likely gun battle with three known killers.

Then-inspector Partridge - in charge of the specialist police response - knew the danger of the situation and the personalities involved, noting: “who shoots police and just sits there and waits?”.

By ordering his team to move towards the property where the Trains were holed up, Supt Partridge told the inquest he understood he was pushing them into a likely confrontation.

He wanted to ensure police could pin them down, isolating the public from the threat.

“I remained concerned about our ability to stop them from leaving and I remained concerned about public safety should they decide to leave.”

The inquest has heard the Trains were firing at police vehicles at the time they were killed from shots to the head - Gareth at 10.32pm, Stacey at 10.36pm and Nathaniel at 10.39pm.

The operation was not straightforward but had the Trains left the property the job would have progressed to a whole different realm of complexity, Supt Partridge told State Coroner Terry Ryan.

Asked about the risk to his team, Supt Partridge said: “The (Special Emergency Response Team) response to the Wieambilla incident was the most dangerous operation SERT’s ever been involved in, certainly in my experience.”

This was due to the number of offenders, heavy calibre of weapons, amount of ammunition they had access to and the Trains’ preparation before police arrived - although officers weren’t aware of that until later - plus their intense motivation to kill police.

“The risk to SERT operators was extreme.”

Supt Partridge said his team followed instructions, executing mission priorities exactly and without hesitation or query.

“As their superintendent now I’m incredibly proud of what they did that night - there was a very good chance someone would be shot and killed, and yet not one of them hesitated,” he said.

Two other constables - Keely Brough and Randall Kirk - escaped the initial ambush when their colleagues were killed.

The inquest continues.