Four police officers had no interaction with the residents of a remote Queensland property before they opened fire and killed two constables, a coroner has heard.
State Coroner Terry Ryan has presided over a pre-inquest conference in Brisbane to establish what findings need to be made over the shooting deaths of the two officers and four other people at Wieambilla on the Western Downs on December 12.
Counsel assisting Ruth O’Gorman KC told the conference on Thursday that the deaths of Constables Matthew Arnold, 26, and Rachel McCrow, 29, and neighbour Alan Dare, 58, “shocked the Queensland community” and had caused great distress and grief.
Constables Arnold and McCrow were wounded then fatally shot at close range within 10 minutes of entering the property for a welfare check on a missing person.
The three suspects in the shooting, Gareth Daniel Train, 47, Nathaniel Charles Train, 46, and Stacey Jane Train, 45, lit fires in an attempt to flush out a female officer who escaped being shot after taking cover.
Mr Dare was shot dead when he went to investigate and the Trains were fatally shot by emergency response officers who entered the property six hours later.
Ms O’Gorman said the body-worn camera footage from the two officers showed “no interaction” with any residents at the property before one or more of the Trains opened fire.
Mr Dare was recording a video on his phone when he was shot that also showed no interaction with the Trains before he was killed.
Ms O’Gorman said video taken by a police helicopter and from Special Emergency Response Team vehicles showed all three Trains firing at the heavily armed tactical officers.
Mr Ryan offered his “sincere condolences to the family, friends and colleagues of those who died at Wieambilla on December 12”.
Relatives of Const McCrow and Mr Dare watched the conference via video link, as did Aiden Train, the son of Nathaniel and Stacey Train.
Public hearings into the deaths and possible ways to prevent a similar incident in the future will not start until 2024 because the coroner must wait for a complex investigation to finish.
The pre-inquest conference was told that Police Ethical Standards Command had started its investigation soon after the deaths and had contacted 152 witnesses and gathered 325 exhibits, including phone records for each of the Trains going back six years.
The inquest will include looking into the online activities of the Trains and “identify possible associates who may have influenced them in their actions”.
Queensland police have previously said Nathaniel Train was wanted on an outstanding warrant for damaging a border gate while entering the state from NSW and dumping two unregistered guns near a creek.
The inquest will consider how NSW Police communicated with their Queensland counterparts when requesting they attend the Wieambilla property.
“Why was it that (the Trains) fired shots at police that day? What influenced them? Were there any red flags known to authorities or should have been known by authorities prior to 12 December?” Ms O’Gorman said.
The inquest will also look at Queensland’s firearms and ammunition laws, rural police officers’ access to rifles and bulletproof vests, NSW Police’s knowledge of the Trains, and offender profiles of the Trains later developed by psychiatrists and counter-terrorism experts.
Ms O’Gorman said she anticipated examining whether police communications with the public around Wieambilla was sufficient to keep them safe during the shooting and whether adequate information was provided to the families of those directly affected.
Solicitor for the McCrow and Arnold families, Peter Lyons, said outside court that his clients “want to know the answers like any grieving families would … this was a very tragic series of events”.