Cop’s tragic choice in deadly shooting

A senior cop has relived the moment she was fired upon by crazed gunmen who killed her colleagues and a neighbour after she heroically used a car to contain the shooters on a regional property.

Multiple senior officers are giving evidence at an inquest into the deaths of six people – including two Queensland Police officers police officers, an innocent neighbour and three gunmen – at a property in Wieambilla in late 2022.

Senior Sergeant Christina Esselink was among them, who told Brisbane Coroners Court how she responded to help contain the situation and retrieve the bodies of her fellow officers before tactical police arrived.

She recalled the moment she felt high-calibre bullets being fired upon her as she used her vehicle to block a driveway to the house.

“I’ve opened the car door … then it was like bang, bang bang,” Sergeant Esselink told the court.

“I thought ‘Oh geez, that’s big’. It was big and close.

“We were in trouble. We were in serious trouble here.”

During her evidence, she also revealed the tragic decision to leave behind the body of Alan Dare due to the heat of the situation.

The five-week inquest into the massacre at Wieambilla is examining the deaths of Queensland Police constables Rachel McCrow and Matthew Arnold, Mr Dare and the three members of the Train family – Nathaniel, his brother Gareth and Gareth’s wife Stacey – on December 12, 2022.

Constables McCrow, 29, and Arnold, 26, were murdered by the Train brothers after jumping the fence of the Wieambilla property.

Two other constables – Keely Brough and Randall Kirk – survived.

Mr Dare, 58, was murdered investigating fires lit by the Trains. He lived on a property opposite theirs.

All three members of the Train family were killed by highly trained Special Emergency Response Team (SERT) officers during a lengthy shootout later that night.

The attending police were conducting a welfare check on Nathaniel, a former NSW school principal who had been reported missing months prior, but were ambushed by the family as they lay in wait.

The Trains followed an extremist Christian ideology known as premillennialism, believing Jesus Christ would return to earth after a period of extreme suffering.

On Friday, Toowoomba-based Senior Sergeant Christina Esselink also gave evidence she saw the initial job while working in the Darling Downs city.

She received permission to attend the forward command post – even though Wieambilla was not within her police district.

“I was aware there were shots fired at police and two (officers) were unaccounted for,” Sergeant Esselink said.

The court was told “significant” resources would be needed to respond to the shooting, including aerial assets like the Polair helicopter, she explained.

Sergeant Esselink said she organised for trained rifle users to come out to Wieambilla and attempted to organise the dog squad to attend.

The court was told Sergeant Esselink used her car to block an open gate towards the Train’s property, effectively containing and isolating the shooters on the property.

At this point, she was fired upon by members of the family, forcing her to bolt from the vehicle to safety.

The court was told she noticed Mr Dare’s body lying nearby and thought about taking his body with her.

“He had been murdered and there was a crime scene, there were shots and gunfire, and we had nowhere to put (his body),” Sergeant Esselink said.

“I thought we’d be back for him … everything was crazy at the time,” she said.

Sergeant Werner Crous also gave evidence he heard radio conversations surrounding where to have a “staging point” after learning of the shooting at the Wains Rd property.

After arriving at 6pm he said he immediately took command of the operation.

“I identified police would attend the incident address to rescue whoever could be rescued, including Keely Brough and Matt (Arnold),”

Some officers were sent to the cordons established on a map drawn in mud on the car of a bonnet, the court was told.

Sergeant Crous said he knew constables McCrow and Arnold had been shot and that constable Brough was on the phone to triple-0 at the time.

“The situation was akin to an active-armed offender situation,” he said.

“I thought to myself I needed four people to form a team, to go to where these officers are.”

Sergeant Crous said he decided on a four-man team to lead the extraction effort, deciding it was enough due to the danger of the situation.

He said some officers were armed with rifles but others had their standard-issue Glock pistols.

Sergeant Crous said he told a fellow officer, Sergeant Andrew Gates, that: “We are going to retrieve Keely, be prepared to engage.”

He said there was “little” information about the offenders, including where they were on the property.

“That was my fear … the offenders would become mobile, which would make life more difficult for us,” Sergeant Crous explained.

“But I did not know anything else except that.”

Rifles needed to be used during the operation due to the distance that was being covered.

The court was told multiple roadblocks were established and police cordoned off neighbouring streets from Wains Rd as part of the Public Safety Preservation Act (PSPA) declaration.

The inquest continues.