The killing of two police officers and a neighbor in Wieambilla, Queensland, last year has been dubbed Australia’s first fundamentalist Christian terrorism incident by the authorities.
Four junior officers were shot at while attempting to enter the property of Gareth, Nathaniel, and Stacey Train in December for what the police described as a routine missing person check. Two of the officers were killed, one was wounded, and the fourth was found hiding in the long grass that her attackers set on fire.
Before a confrontation with police resulted in the deaths of all three Trains, a neighbor was subsequently shot and died.
In the weeks following the incident, police and security organizations combed through Stacey’s journal as well as the trio’s phones and internet chats to piece together their motivations, according to Tracy Linford, deputy commissioner of Queensland police.
“Our analysis has found that Nathaniel, Gareth, and Stacey Train operated as an independent cell and carried out a terrorist act with a religious motivation,” she stated.
The Train family adhered to premillennialism, or what we may term a broadly Christian fundamentalist theological system.
“I’m not an expert in that, but, in its basic interpretation, is that there was a belief that Christ will return to the Earth for a thousand days, bringing prosperity and peace, but it will be preceded by an era or a time of tribulation, and there will be great suffering and widespread destruction.”
According to Linford, the Trains’ fall towards more extreme theological ideas was sparked by the Covid epidemic, climatic crises, global strife, anti-vaccine and anti-government fervor, and socioeconomic inequality.
She said that while “Christian extreme ideology has been linked to numerous atrocities across the world,” this was the first instance of it happening in Australia.
“The Waco incident [in Texas in 1993] is probably the one that most people would recognize.”
She said that the Australian Federal Police and the Australian Security and Intelligence Organisation are also participating in the continuing inquiry.
Before the deadly firefight, the Trains had engaged in “advanced planning and preparation” and had seen police as “monsters and devils,” according to Linford.
“This attack wasn’t random or spontaneous, in our opinion. We are confident that it was a police-targeted strike.
On their Wieambilla farm, according to Linford, the group had constructed camouflaged shelters where police believe one of the three would occasionally “lay in wait.”
The Trains had six firearms, three compound bows, knives, camouflage clothing, CCTV cameras, and radios, and they had dug dirt mounds, built steel and log barriers, and placed mirrors on trees, which police believe they used to prepare for approaching vehicles. They also had six firearms, three compound bows, and six knives.
She said, “We even found a trapdoor under the home that may have made an easy escape possible.
According to the deputy commissioner, the FBI, and Queensland police have individually met because a guy in the US is seen to be a “person of interest” in the shootings.
Following the assault, the Trains uploaded a terrifying video on YouTube in which they purported to address a conspiracist residing in Arizona with whom they had developed an online friendship.
The 41-second film ended with Gareth saying, “We’ll see you when we get home, Don.”
According to Linford, the police thought the word “home” meant paradise.
Don is a person of interest, according to Linford, who stated this on Thursday.
“Therefore we have cooperated with our American colleagues, given them the information we have, and they will decide what investigations they could do as a result of that information,” the statement said.
Linford emphasized that there was no proof of a domestic connection to the “terrorist cell” of the Trains.
She said that there didn’t seem to be any relation to the movement for sovereign citizens, despite early conjecture to the contrary being “understandable” given the actions of the Trains.
The deputy commissioner claimed that, contrary to what she claimed was frequently the case with followers of that philosophy, police had not discovered any communications in which the Trains claimed to be sovereign citizens.
According to the deputy commissioner, the Trains may have thought their murderous example would encourage others to do the same.
Linford responded that it was “not something we’ve seen in Australia” when asked if the threat of Christian extremists had been on the radar of the police before the incident.
More than 190 testimonies and recorded interviews were gathered by the police, said Linford, but the coroner will ultimately determine what drove the Tragedy and make suggestions for how to prevent similar disasters in the future.
The victims of a terrible mass shooting in Queensland were described as kind by their daughter
On December 12, three men—Stacey, Gareth, and Nathaniel Train—killed two police officers and a neighbor at a home in Wieambilla, three hours west of Brisbane.
Later that night, the criminals were killed in a shootout with specialized police.
The biological daughter of Nathaniel and Stacey, Madelyn Train, revealed to the media that her mother disliked weapons.
After Stacey wed him following her divorce from Nathaniel, Train was reared by her “uncle Gary” (Gareth), whom she referred to be her father.
Train reportedly told the Associated Press that they were the kindest folks she knew.
“I was raised in a wonderfully loving, supportive family.
“I grieve for six people; I grieve for my family, I grieve for the cops, and I grieve for the neighbor.”
The Accident killed Alan Dare, a neighbor, Rachel McCrow, a constable, and Matthew Arnold.
Grieving for three members of your family is difficult enough, but Train said, “But learning what they did and watching everyone’s response to what they did…
She said that despite not having seen the group in years, she had been in contact with them by text and email.
Train said that although there was no indication that they would carry out the mass massacre, her “dad,” Gary, did have radical opinions.
“It appeared as though he was working on some strange religious project about Covid and the end of the world. He anticipates the end of the world, “She spoke.
As talks took a gloomy turn, Train claimed that she would frequently attempt to redirect her uncle to other topics.
She claimed to be aware that her parents, Stacey and Gary, had a gun safe and permits, as well as that her biological father, Nathaniel, had firearms.
But my mother wasn’t a fan of weapons,” Train added.
Train said that Gary was a fan of the military.
Because he wanted to enlist himself, she claimed that Gary frequently pretended to be in a military situation.
He consumed a lot of military literature.
Train said that when the three carried out the shooting, they were “inspired by terror.”
