NSW police failed to pass on reports about two brothers’ fascination with "doomsday” before they were involved in fatally shooting two officers, a coroner has heard.
Coroner Terry Ryan, who is investigating the fatal shooting of six people at Wieambilla in rural Queensland, on Tuesday heard evidence from NSW Police on their search for missing man Nathaniel Train, 46, who would later feature in the killings.
NSW Police Detective Senior Constable Tim Montgomery testified he did not forward to a rural Queensland police station a set of threatening emails from Nathaniel‘s brother Gareth Train, 47, or further details about their paranoid beliefs.
Mr Ryan was shown a brief email Det Montgomery sent to Queensland Police in the early afternoon of December 12, 2022 requesting they send one police vehicle to Gareth Train’s remote bush property, west of Brisbane, to ask if he knew his brother’s whereabouts.
By early evening that day, Nathaniel and Gareth Train had fatally shot Queensland Constables Matthew Arnold, 26, and Rachel McCrow, 29, in an ambush with high-powered rifles.
Det Montgomery said he attached to the email a police “narrative” report from the initial missing persons case for Nathaniel Train created on November 23, 2022.
“I copy and pasted the first narrative into an email. There were other narratives there … I didn't (read beyond the first),” Det Montgomery said.
Mr Ryan heard those other narratives summarised emails from Gareth Train telling his brother officers wanted to "see you dead" and vowing to “greet them as they deserve” if they turned up to his remote bush property west of Brisbane.
Det Montgomery said he did not send further narratives because he saw the first one as being detailed and comprehensive, but he would have forwarded the threatening emails to Queensland Police if he had read it.
NSW Plain Clothes Senior Constable Emma Condon said in early December 2022 she talked with the person who reported Nathaniel Train missing and had gained more information about the Train brothers' mental state.
Sen Const Condon was asked about her report of the conversation detailing the Train brothers' interest in “doomsday, Satan, the rapture… the apocalypse” and their “upbringing in a cultish church”.
“That came from (a close associate of Nathaniel Train),” Sen Const Condon said.
The close associate cannot be identified because of a court order.
Detective Senior Constable Richard Gozman, from the NSW Police missing persons registry, testified he had changed the risk assessment for Nathaniel Train to "high risk to himself" but not to police or the public.
"It was on the basis of his (cardiac) health condition. The other thing that stood out to me is the length of time he had not been seen or spoken with," Det Gozman said.
Gareth Train’s threatening emails were forwarded to NSW Police early on the morning of December 12, 2022 and were not reviewed by an officer or uploaded to their database until the late morning.
The supervising officer on Nathaniel Train's missing persons case, Detective Senior Constable Jordan Hammerton, testified he earlier instructed Det Montgomery and Sen Cons Condon to request Queensland Police attend the Wieambilla property.
"Phone tower data showed he (Nathaniel Train) was last in that area close to his brother's house ... we had exhausted what we could through investigations in NSW," Det Hammerton said.
He said Queensland Police were told Gareth Train was "paranoid and had a dislike of police".
Four junior Queensland Police officers went to the Wieambilla property on December 12, 2022 to locate Nathaniel Train.
The officers had a warrant to arrest him for illegally crossing the NSW border during COVID-19 lockdowns and for firearms offences.
Nathaniel Train joined with Gareth and his sibling's wife Stacey, 45, to also kill their neighbour Alan Dare, 58, soon after fatally shooting two of the officers.
All three Trains were shot dead hours later by specialist officers after they refused to surrender and opened fire on a police armoured vehicle.
