"Is this an issue of a woman suffering significant domestic violence, and her and her children perishing at the hands of the husband?
"Or is it an instance of a husband being driven too far by issues that he's suffered by certain circumstances into committing acts of this form?"
Speaking this morning, Police Commissioner Katarina Carroll apologised for the comment.
"He is distraught and he is gutted about the way he said it, and what was said," Commissioner Carroll told the ABC.
"He is a man who has protected the Queensland community all his life and has worked endless hours, and when he looks back he cannot believe the way he has phrased that."
The reactions to Insp Thompson's comment came thick and fast on Twitter on Thursday afternoon and into the evening.
Federal Labor MP Brian Mitchell, for Lyons in Tasmania, responded: "Jesus Christ Almighty".
"We don't fumble about like this when terrorists kill – why does family violence bring out the hand-wringers for killers of women and kids?" he said.
Brisbane-based writer Dr Anna Whateley said: "I am genuinely shocked. You cannot drive someone to do what he did."
The Guardian reported chief executive of the Women's Legal Service Queensland, Angela Lynch, responded that "for police to be buying into that kind of rhetoric is very concerning."
"It's giving legitimacy to what has occurred, it's victim blaming," Lynch said.
"It's saying that she might have caused this through her own actions. It plays into very dangerous ideas in the community around victim blaming and a whole range of myths about the family law system."
Victims' advocate Renee Eaves told the publication the narrative was "the most dangerous thing that exists for victims who doubt themselves" after violence and question responsibility.
The administrator for the Doctors Against Violence Towards Women public page on Facebook said "women who are accused of restricting access, 'driving' their men to the brink, who seek orders against the father of their children, are actually just fiercely protective".
One Twitter user said the comment implied it was "open season on women and kids".
"Just tell the cops you were 'pushed too far'," the horrified man said.
Others said "good grief" and called the comment "disgusting", audacious and victim blaming.
Here are just some of the responses.
Clarke and her children all died from burns sustained when Rowan Baxter, 42, set the family car alight on a Camp Hill street on Wednesday morning. Ms Clarke was taken to hospital but succumbed to her injuries around 9pm.
Police said the 42-year-old man was also found dead after the fire with a self-inflicted injury.
Insp Thompson had been asked if "murder-suicide" was the one line of inquiry being pursued.
He was also questioned as to what he meant by the suggestion police were looking "at whether he (Baxter) was driven too far to have done this".
"Is there something you're looking at recently that's occurred between them that may have sparked it?" one reporter asked.
Insp Thompson replied: "Absolutely not. I'm not leaning towards that at all.
"What I was trying to illustrate by my comments were that you do see both in public commentary and in general responses from the community that people will make those allegations.
"Maybe they are scorned members of the community themselves that have had dealings with domestic violence in the past and that's the sort of things that they say in response to an incident like this.
"I am certainly not saying that the Queensland Police Service are taking any view in relation to that at all. We are not doing that. We are keeping an open mind and doing an open investigation which is exactly what we are to do and we are under the direction from the state coroner to do that."
