By HARRY CLARKE
A United States national has been arrested over the shooting deaths of two Queensland police officers and a civilian at Wieambilla on the Western Downs last December.
A Queensland Police Service (QPS) statement released this afternoon said the arrest came after investigators from the QPS Ethical Standards Command and the Security and Counter Terrorism Command travelled to the US, where they joined Federal Bureau of Investigation Agents and other law enforcement officers.
“On Friday morning, December 1, 2023 (US time) FBI Agents arrested a 58-year-old United States national near Heber Overgaard, Arizona, in connection to the religiously motivated terrorist attack on December 12, 2022 at Wieambilla,” the QPS statement said.
“Investigations by the QPS and FBI are ongoing in Arizona.”
QPS Assistant Commissioner Cheryl Scanlon and Federal Bureau of Investigation representative Nitiana Mann are expected to provide a “significant update” as part of “a major investigation” at 2.30pm today.
Police constables Rachel McCrow and Matthew Arnold, and civilian Alan Dare, were shot dead by Nathaniel, Gareth and Stacey Train after the officers approached the Trains’ property as part of a welfare check on December 12 last year.
Constables Keely Brough and Randall Kirk managed to escape the gunfire before Special Emergency Response Team officers moved in and killed the shooters later that night.
A coronial inquest scheduled for next August will investigate what led up to the shooting, how it unfolded and what preventative measures may improve officers’ safety in future.
QPS Deputy Commissioner Tracy Linford in February said police investigations had established the shooting was a religiously motivated terrorist attack targeting police.
“Our assessment has concluded that Nathaniel, Gareth and Stacey Train acted as an autonomous cell and executed a religiously motivated terrorist attack,” Linford said.
“What we’ve been able to glean from that information is that the Train family members subscribed to what we would call a broad Christian fundamentalist belief system known as premillennialism.
“It’s a belief system that comes from Christian theology. Its basic interpretation is that there is a belief that Christ will return to the earth for a thousand days and provide peace and prosperity, but it will be preceded by a time of tribulation, widespread destruction and suffering.”
More to come.