A senior specialist police officer has outlined his decision to send a team into a likely gun battle with three known killers, to prevent a potential further threat to public safety.
Superintendent Timothy Partridge today told a coroner that attempts to negotiate with the trio at a Wieambilla property were met with gunfire on December 12, 2022.
Constables Matthew Arnold and Rachel McCrow and neighbour Alan Dare had been killed when ambushed and shot by Nathaniel, Gareth and Stacey Train at the property in the Western Downs area, west of Brisbane.
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Then-inspector Partridge – in charge of the specialist police response – knew the danger of the situation and the personalities involved, noting: “who shoots police and just sits there and waits?”.
By ordering his team to move towards the property where the Trains were holed up, Partridge told the inquest he understood he was pushing them into a likely confrontation.
He wanted to ensure police could “pin them down”, isolating the public from the threat.
“I remained concerned about our ability to stop them from leaving and I remained concerned about public safety should they decide to leave,” he said.
The Trains were subsequently killed in a gunfight with police that night.
The operation had to consider multiple variables, including that the Trains might have been using the dead officers’ radios to monitor communications.
When police tried to negotiate using a loud hailer the Trains fired numerous shots directly into the windscreen of an armoured vehicle.
The operation was not straightforward but had the Trains left the property the job would have progressed to a whole different realm of complexity, Partridge told State Coroner Terry Ryan.
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Asked about the risk to his team, Partridge said: “The (Special Emergency Response Team) response to the Wieambilla incident was the most dangerous operation SERT’s ever been involved in, certainly in my experience.”
“This was due to the number of offenders, heavy calibre of weapons, amount of ammunition they had access to and the Trains’ preparation before police arrived – although officers weren’t aware of that until later – plus their intense motivation to kill police.
“The risk to SERT operators was extreme.”
Partridge said his team followed instructions, executing mission priorities exactly and without hesitation or query.
“As their superintendent now I’m incredibly proud of what they did that night – there was a very good chance someone would be shot and killed, and yet not one of them hesitated,” he said.
Two other constables – Keely Brough and Randall Kirk – escaped the initial ambush when their colleagues were killed.
The inquest continues.
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