Lawyer blames psychiatric disorder shared by 3 Australian Christian extremists for fatal siege

MELBOURNE, Australia -- MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Three Christian extremists would probably not have fatally shot two police officers and a bystander in an ambush on a rural Australian property and wounded a third officer two years ago if they had not shared the same psychiatric disorder, a coroner was told on Thursday.

Brothers Gareth and Nathaniel Train and Gareth’s wife, Stacey Train, were killed by police reinforcements with armored vehicles, ending a six-hour siege on Dec. 12, 2022, in the sparsely populated Wieambilla region west of the Queensland state capital, Brisbane.

State Coroner Terry Ryan on Thursday ended his 17-day inquiry into the cause of the violence that claimed six lives.

He will release the findings of his investigation and make recommendations aimed at preventing a repeat of the tragedy at a later date.

The lawyer leading evidence in the inquiry, Ruth O’Gorman, told Ryan in her final submissions that the Trains believed the “End Times were imminent.”

The court has heard that the Trains followed the Christian fundamentalist belief system known as pre-millennialism that focused on an apocalypse before Jesus Christ's return to Earth.

“Their religious extremism was a key driver for their actions and the Trains were likely suffering from a shared delusional disorder which pre-existed those religious convictions,” O’Gorman said.

Their shared delusion involved a belief that they were being persecuted by authorities, particularly police, she said.

“The Trains likely developed their religious extremist views and beliefs in a way to make sense of, and even seek hope in, a world in which they truly and wrongly believed they were being persecuted and it is unlikely that their religious extremism would have developed without the underlying shared delusional disorder,” O'Gorman said.

“It is unlikely that the events of Dec. 12, 2022, would have occurred in the absence of their shared delusional disorder,” she added.

Forensic psychiatrist Andrew Aboud earlier told the inquest that had the Trains survived the siege, they might have been found mentally unfit to stand trial on any criminal charge.

Four police officers had gone to the Trains’ house to arrest Nathaniel Train on a warrant relating to firearm offenses.

The brothers opened fire with bolt-action rifles from hidden sniper positions on their wooded property.

Police officer Matthew Arnold was killed by a single shot to the chest from Nathaniel Train’s rifle.

Officer Rachel McCrow was later shot three times before Gareth Train fired the fatal shot to her head at close range. Both brothers could have fired the first three shots, Gormon said.

Officer Randal Kirk was wounded as he fled and the fourth officer, Keely Brough, hid in woods on the property until reinforcements arrived.

Neighbor Alan Dare was fatally shot through the chest by one of the brothers as Dare came to investigate the sounds of gunfire and the smell of smoke from a burning police car.

Stacey Train, who had been married to Nathaniel and had two children with him before marrying the older brother, did not start firing until the police armored vehicles arrived.

Families of the victims provided heartbreaking statements to the coroner on Thursday which said the tragedy should have been avoided for a range of reasons.

McCrow’s family said she had repeatedly told them in her body camera and audio recorder “I love you” in the eight minutes she survived after she was first wounded.

The family said authorities did not tell them of her last words until three months after her death.

“Rachel, we want you to know we love you so much too,” their statement said. She would have turned 31 on Friday.

Arnold was one of triplets. He died at age 26.

“The triplets’ birthday, or any family event will never be the same again,” his family said.