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“I don’t think they were very sophisticated,” she told state coroner Terry Ryan this week.
Gareth, 47, and Nathaniel, 46, are brothers. Gareth is married to 45-year-old Stacey, Nathaniel’s ex-wife.
Together they ambushed and shot police officers Matthew Arnold, 26, Rachel McCrow, 29, and neighbor Alan Dare, 58, before they were killed in a shootout with tactical police.
The incident was described as the country’s first domestic terrorist attack inspired by extremist Christian ideology.
Senator Gleeson arrived at the 107-hectare property shortly afterwards.
The eight-room house appears to be set up for “off-grid living”, with water tanks, solar panels and no need for mains electricity.
Walking into the kitchen, past the spent bullet casings in the house, Gleason found health foods and toilet paper — lots of toilet paper.
“There wasn’t a lot of pre-packaged food and a lot of it was non-perishable food,” she told the coroner.
“They stocked up a lot of toilet paper in the pantry.
“But I guess you could say there’s healthy living and healthy food in the kitchen.”
An item on the kitchen bench also caught Officer Gleason’s attention.
It was a makeshift Faraday box, used to shield against electromagnetic fields and cell phone signals, and contained six cell phones.
Investigators learned that at one point during the six-hour police siege that followed the ambush, negotiators tried to call Terrance’s cellphone every five minutes. Attempts to negotiate with Terrance were either ignored or met with gunfire.
The house has two bedrooms and not much furniture, but lots of reading material.
“They just had basic furniture. But there were tons of books,” Gleason said.
“The bedrooms were also very sparsely furnished, with not many personal items in wardrobes, cupboards or drawers.
“We found some diaries. There were little letters and little notes all over the house.”
Books were also found in another part of the building, which was the sniper’s main hideout.
It was located about 200 meters from their dirt road and contained a tent with a double mattress.
Instances godfather The novel was one of the items found in the “stash.”
There is an old trail that leads from the house to the Sniper’s Position, one of three “shooting positions” on the property.
Other “defenses” include a metal-wood barricade on the driveway and three mirrors on the outside of the house, designed to block the view of intruders.
Satellite images show that sniper points and roadblocks have been in place since at least October 2022, two months before the deadly shooting.
Evidence showed that former elementary school principal Nathaniel Train was in the main “hiding spot” and tracked the four officers using the scope of a high-powered rifle.
On December 12, 2022, at approximately 4:30 p.m., Officers Arnold and McCrow arrived at the scene with two colleagues, thinking they were conducting a routine missing person investigation.
They jumped over the fence. A coffee cup with the words “Have a Nice Day” was taped to the post of the front door.
Without any warning, Officer Arnold was shot in the chest and died.
Officer Mike Rowe was then shot in the back and leg as he tried to crawl for cover.
Investigators learned she pleaded with Gareth Train before he shot her in the head at close range.
Train crews set fire to drive out other officers, who then escaped under heavy gunfire.
Good Samaritan Mr. Dale was shot and killed when he arrived at the fire scene to investigate.
About six hours later, tactical police engaged the two suspects in a shootout inside the house, killing them within minutes.
Investigator Detective Senior Constable Nathan McCormack told the inquest: “At no time did I observe any surrender on the part of Gareth, Stacey or Nathaniel.”
“The only communication was a YouTube video (titled) ‘Don’t be afraid.’
Gareth and Stacey Train filmed and uploaded a YouTube video hours after the officer was killed, calling the police “devils and demons”.
Stacey Train had come out of the house to serve the brothers coffee just minutes after her husband opened fire on a hovering police helicopter.
Police said at the time that the Train Gang members carried out a “religiously motivated terrorist attack” and were influenced by pre-millennialist fundamentalist Christian ideology and a belief that the end of the world was approaching.
The coroner heard that Gareth Train may have suffered from mental illness, which caused his wife and brother to suffer from “shared psychosis”.
An expert is expected to tell the inquest that the Train family experienced “the same persecution and religious beliefs that meet the psychiatric definition of delusional disorder”.
Assisting counsel Ruth O’Gorman told the inquest: “In many ways it appears that coronavirus was the trigger for some of the events.”
In March 2020, Gareth Train began posting conspiracy theories on social media that appeared to be shared by his wife.
Investigators learned that by August, their brother had adopted them.
After Trains posted the YouTube video, tactical police arrived.
Unlike the four officers caught in the ambush, the specialist police response team was well aware of the imminent danger.
“I thought ‘Who would sit there and wait after shooting a police officer?'” Superintendent Timothy Partridge told the inquest.
When the three people on the train opened fire on police, they were all shot in the head – Gareth was shot at 10.32pm, Stacey at 10.36pm and Nathaniel at 10.39pm.
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