Wieambilla Shooting ‘a religiously motivated terrorist attack’ Queensland Police say

The deadly ambush that led to the execution of two Queensland police officers and an innocent neighbour on a remote property at Wieambilla last December has been declared an act of domestic terrorism.

Queensland Police Deputy Commissioner Tracy Linford said that Nathaniel Train, his brother Gareth and sister-in-law Stacey “acted as an autonomous cell”, with the attack being “religiously motivated”.  

The December 12 attack, which occurred some 290 kilometres northwest of Brisbane, resulted in the death of Constables Matthew Arnold, 26, and Rachel McCrow, 29, along with Alan Dare.

Two other police officers, Constables Keeley Brough and Constable Randall Kirk, both 28, only narrowly survived the attack, with Brough becoming trapped in burning bushland as the trio tried to smoke her out.

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Deputy Commissioner Linford today said that whilst the investigation is “far from” complete, exhaustive evidence had been collected and analysed.

“We have now had the opportunity to go through many, many documents, one of those being a diary that Stacey Train maintained,” Linford said.

“We‘ve had an opportunity to go through all the phone messages texts, emails, the social media postings.

“That analysis has provided us significant information and understanding about what drove the motivation of the Train family members on that day and our system has concluded that Nathaniel, Gareth and Stacey Train acted as an autonomous cell and executed a religiously-motivated terrorist attack.”

The Deputy Commissioner said the trio appear to have subscribed to a “broad Christian fundamentalist belief system known as premillennialism,” before going onto say it was the first Christian extremist terror attack in Australia.

Linford said premillennialism is the Christian belief is that Christ will return to the earth for 100 days and provide peace and prosperity before a period of tribulation, widespread destruction and suffering.

During the hours-long siege on the day of the shootings, Gareth and Stacey posted a video on YouTube boasting that they killed “these devils and demons”.

"We don't believe this attack was random or spontaneous,” Linford said.

"We do believe it was an attack directed at police."

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