In today's headlines, Government boot camps underway, Philip Polkinghorne’s murder trial, and Clareburt misses the cut. Video / NZ Herald / Getty / NIWA
Harrowing videos of a deadly ambush of four junior police officers in Queensland have been played to an inquest into the fatal shootings of six people at Wieambilla.
Counsel assisting Ruth O’Gorman on Monday told the opening of a five-week inquest at Brisbane Coroners Court that all six deaths had been filmed by either mobile phone and police body-worn or helicopter cameras, but the precise fatal moments would not be shown.
State Coroner Terry Ryan was shown videos leading up to the seconds before the deaths and immediately afterwards, including footage recorded by police as they entered the property as part of a routine missing persons inquiry.
The four constables climbed over a fence and chatted about their status as first-year officers before an unseen person opened fire on them without warning as they walked up a winding dirt driveway with open grass either side separating them from bushland.
“There’s a warrant for this fella?,” one officer says in the seconds before O’Gorman stopped the video and said Arnold was shot in the chest and died.
O’Gorman said McCrow showed “great courage and grace” by recording important details about the attackers and a message to her family after she was shot three times in the back and legs while trying to crawl to cover.
Rachel McCrow and Matthew Arnold were killed in an ambush at a remote property.
“She recorded that a shooter was coming towards her. She discharged 15 shots from her Glock [police-issued handgun] and pleaded with the male. There was a brief verbal exchange before she was killed at close range,” O’Gorman said.
Constable Randall Kirk took cover behind a tree and tried to call for help on his radio, but could not get through, eventually reaching his police station by phone.
Kirk told his acting sergeant that Arnold and McCrow were dead and the shooters had taken a police Glock in addition to their rifles.
“You’ve got to look after yourself, buddy,” the sergeant told Kirk, who ran from tree to tree while carrying his gun and being shot at multiple times.
Kirk was able to reach a police vehicle and sped away, despite suffering bullet wounds to the hip and abdomen.
“I had to drive away. I lost a shoe. There’s blood on my face. I don’t know if I’ve been shot,” Kirk told fellow officers by phone.
Neighbour Alan Dare was also shot dead when he came to investigate a fire started by the Trains in an attempt to flush out Constable Keely Brough, who had made it to cover and was concealed by grass less than 20cm in height.
Dare started filming the fire with his mobile phone and said a person was approaching him in a vehicle.
“Oh s***. What the? There was a fight, eh?” Dare said in the seconds before he was fatally shot in the chest.
The Trains were killed in a gunfight with specialist police later that night at the property.
The families of two officers shot dead have called for immediate law changes around firearms and police communications.
Judy McCrow, the mother of McCrow, spoke for her family and the family of Arnold outside the Brisbane Coroners Court ahead of the inquest.
“We pose this question to authorities: could a national firearms and ammunition register, drones and satellite-based communication strategies reduce the current risk?” she said.
She was joined by McCrow’s sister Samantha McCrow and Arnold’s father, Terry Arnold, mother Sue Arnold and sister Hayley Arnold.
“There is no escaping our devastating loss, the all-consuming grief and the tears. Our collective heart remains broken beyond repair,” she said.
