A police officer who survived a shooting ambush in rural Queensland is due to give evidence before a coronial inquest.
Constable Randall Kirk was wounded after he and three other junior officers entered a property at Wieambilla, northwest of Brisbane, as part of a missing persons inquiry on the afternoon of December 12, 2022.
Constables Matthew Arnold and Rachel McCrow were shot in cold blood by Nathaniel and Gareth Train as the two officers walked along a winding dirt driveway.
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Their families spoke for the first time about the tragedy on Monday ahead of the inquest’s opening.
State Coroner Terry Ryan on Monday was shown Kirk’s body-worn camera footage in which he fired back after taking cover behind a tree.
Kirk is due to appear as a witness on Tuesday morning for the second day of the five-week inquest.
Nathaniel, Gareth and his wife Stacey Train were killed by specialist police six hours after the constables were gunned down.
They refused to negotiate and opened fire on police helicopters and an armoured vehicle.
The Trains earlier shot and killed neighbour Alan Dare who had come to investigate.
Queensland Police at the time said the Trains committed a “religiously motivated terrorist attack” influenced by the fundamentalist Christian ideology of Premillennialism and had believed the world would soon end.
Ryan previously heard Kirk used his phone to call an acting sergeant and report officers had been shot by men with rifles.
“You’ve got to look after yourself, buddy,” a sergeant told Kirk, who then ran from tree to tree while being shot at multiple times.
https://omny.fm/shows/the-ultimate-sacrifice/episode-5-the-inquest-begins/embed?style=cover
Kirk was able to make it back to a police vehicle and flee the ambush while reporting to his station he had “blood on my face”.
Constable Keely Brough hid herself in grass and narrowly avoided being flushed out by a fire lit by the Trains before backup arrived two hours later.
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