Specialist police commander tells Wieambilla inquest he believed extremists would flee to NSW border

A senior police officer was almost certain three extremists would flee their Western Downs property, believing nobody would fatally shoot police and “just sit and wait”, an inquest has heard.

On December 12, 2022, four officers were ambushed at a Wains Road property at Wieambilla.

Constables Rachel McCrow and Matthew Arnold were shot dead by Gareth, Nathaniel and Stacey Train. Their colleagues, Constables Keely Brough and Randall Kirk, survived.

The Trains also killed their neighbor Alan Dare before they were gunned down in a shootout with specialist police.

Superintendent Tim Partridge was the Special Emergency Response Team (SERT) commander at the time of the incident, tasked with containing the Trains’ property and negotiating the surrender and arrest of the trio.

He told the inquest he was incredibly concerned the extremists would flee the scene due to a missing person’s report made about Nathaniel interstate.

“My immediate thoughts were they’d be heading for New South Wales, as they were close to the border,” he said.

“The fact a civilian had also been killed, not just police, elevated that concern and emphasized the critical nature of isolating the threat from the public.”

Little confidence an arrest would be made

Superintendent Partridge said negotiators failed to reach the Trains by phone, and their reaction to negotiations over a loudspeaker made it clear their arrest wasn’t likely.

“Any attempts to negotiate was met with gunfire,” he said.

“I understood by pushing SERT operators forward it was probable I would be pushing them into tactically compromised positions, and it was likely there would be a confrontation and an exchange of gunfire, but I remained concern about our ability to stop leaving them.

Superintendent Partridge was questioned why non-lethal methods weren’t used to try and take down the murderous trio.