A coroner has released chilling triple-0 audio from moments before a man was murdered by his neighbours in a religiously motivated terror attack.
Alan Dare, 52, was one of three victims shot dead by crazed gunmen at a property in Wieambilla, in Queensland’s Western Downs region, in late 2022.
Mr Dare lived with his wife Kerry on the neighbouring property of Nathaniel, Stacey and Gareth Train.
In a triple-0 call, Ms. Dare tells the operator she can hear “gunshots and black smoke” and smell an “electrical burning smell.”
Mr. Dare can be heard briefly in the background.
“There’s been gunfire for about an hour,” Ms. Dare said. “But in the last ten minutes, there have been two loud explosions. Very loud, not gunshots.”
Ms. Dare goes on to say that there is a lot of smoke in the air before the operator tells them not to investigate.
The five-week inquiry into the Wieambilla massacre is examining the deaths of Queensland police officers 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 12 December 2022.
Alan Dare, a neighbour of the Trains, was killed while investigating fires the trio had set on the property an hour after two officers were shot dead.
Mr Dare filmed the event on his phone before his death.
Officers McCrow, 29, and Arnold, 26, were killed by the Train brothers after jumping the fence on Wieambilla’s property.
Two other officers, Keely Brough and Randall Kirk, survived.
Mr Dare, 58, was killed while investigating the train fires. He lived in a property opposite theirs.
The three members of the Train family were killed by highly trained Special Emergency Response Team (SERT) officers during a lengthy gunfight later that night.
Police on hand were conducting a welfare check on Nathaniel, a former New South Wales school principal who had been reported missing months earlier but was ambushed by family as they stalked him.
The Trains followed an extremist Christian apocalyptic ideology known as premillennialism, which believed that Jesus Christ would return to Earth after a period of extreme suffering.
In the triple-0 call, released by the Coroner’s Court on Friday, Ms Dare tells the operator the fire does not smell like a grass fire.
POLAIR Vision has revealed the tense final moments during the shooting in Wieambilla
“Oh my god, it’s close… it’s getting ugly, shit,” he says as the black smoke continues to advance.
‘We’re going to have to talk to the neighbors.’
Mrs. Dare informs the operator that her husband was going to investigate with another neighbor, Victor Lewis.
“I strongly advise against it,” the operator replies.
In the audio, she says her husband is “up on the road.”
The Wieambilla massacre inquiry is examining the deaths of Queensland police officers Rachel McCrow and Matthew Arnold, Mr Dare and the three members of the Train family – Nathaniel, his brother Gareth and Gareth’s wife Stacey (pictured).
The court on Friday made public the triple-zero call Kerry Dare (pictured with Alan) made during the shootings and fires in Wieambilla.
Queensland police officers Matthew Arnold and Rachel McCrow were murdered by members of the Train family
The operator tells her that police are already responding to work in the area and urges her to call back if anything else comes up.
Mr Dare was filming at the time he was fatally shot while investigating the fires.
On Friday, Queensland Police Sergeant Andrew Gates also gave testimony of the moment he recovered the bodies of his fallen colleagues after they were shot dead by trains.
He told the court he volunteered to be part of the extrication team to recover the bodies of Officers Arnold and McCrow.
He revealed that he didn’t want to do it, but said it was “what we were doing.”
The court was told the team proceeded along Wains Rd to the address with a vehicle travelling at a “walking pace”.
Sgt. Gates explained that he felt officers were in a “death funnel” due to the lack of coverage.
He said he saw Officer McCrow in the driveway, about 150 yards from the property.
The team also shouted “colors” to Agent Brough as she hid in the meadow to see if she could hear them.
Sergeant Gates stated that he yelled at Officer Brough to stay in the tree line.
The last time he saw his colleague was “running for his life, with a Glock in his hand” before the team arrived.
The court was told he then approached Officer McCrow’s body and nearly ripped off her shirt as he tried to drag her to safety with his vest.
Sgt. Gates said it appeared to have been removed.
“We put her in the vehicle… her head turned and I realized she was dead,” said Sergeant Gates.
Senior Sergeant Christina Esselink, based in Toowoomba, also said she saw the initial work while working in the Darling Downs town.
He was given permission to attend the forward command post, even though Wieambilla was not within his police district.
“I knew there were shots fired at police and that two (officers) were missing,” Sgt. Esselink said.
The court was told “significant” resources would be needed to respond to the shooting, including aerial assets such as the Polair helicopter, he said.
Sgt Esselink said he arranged for trained rifle users to come to Wieambilla and attempted to organise the dog squad to attend.
The court was told that Sergeant Esselink used her car to block an open gate into the Train property, effectively containing and isolating the shooters on the property.
Trains’ property on Wains Rd in Wieambilla
Nathaniel Train
Stacey and Gareth’s Train
At that point, family members shot her, forcing her to run out of the vehicle to safety.
The court was told the woman noticed Mr Dare’s body lying nearby and thought about taking him with her.
“He had been murdered and there was a crime scene, there were gunshots and bullet holes, and we had nowhere to put (his body),” Sergeant Esselink said.
“I thought we would come back to get him… everything was crazy at that point,” she said.
The investigation continues.
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