Australian police officer recalls 2022 ambush by extremists in rural area that left 2 officers dead

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — A police officer testified Tuesday he did not know where bullets were coming from as two colleagues were shot in an ambush by three Christian extremists on a rural Australian property two years ago.

Constable Randall Kirk told a coroner’s inquest he was also shot as he fled the property in the Wieambilla region of Queensland state on Dec. 12, 2022, after his colleagues Constable Matthew Arnold and Constable Rachel McCrow had been killed.

They were ambushed by brothers Gareth and Nathaniel Train and Gareth’s wife Stacey Train, conspiracy theorists who hated police, State Coroner Terry Ryan was told.

Ryan is investigating the circumstances of the violence that claimed six lives to determine among other things whether the Trains’ weapons were legally obtained and whether the slain police had been adequately trained and equipped.

The Train couple lived on the property and Nathaniel Train, who had previously been Stacey Train’s husband and had two children with her, was visiting from another state.

The property had several concealed shooting positions and Gareth Train had been warned that police would be visiting in response to a missing person report made by his younger brother’s wife, who cannot be named for legal reasons.

All three Trains were shot dead by police later that day following a six-hour siege. All three were photographed firing rifles at police armored vehicles and ignoring calls to surrender.

A neighbor, Alan Dare, was also shot dead by one of the Trains when he came to investigate the sounds of gunfire and smoke from a burning police car an hour after the initial ambush.

Kirk said he, Arnold, McCrow and Constable Keely Brough all jumped the Trains’ front gate in search of Nathaniel