The inquest into the Wieambilla shootings on Queensland’s western downs has heard from a man who witnessed the death of the neighbour killed in the ambush. Two young constables and the local man were fatally shot in December 2022 in what was later described by police as a religiously motivated attack.
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00:00Alan Dare lived next door to the rural property and went to investigate after hearing explosions
00:07and gunshots coming from the direction of the neighbouring home.
00:10The 58-year-old called another neighbour and asked him to meet at the front gate of the
00:15William Biller property, but they came across a car on fire.
00:18Within minutes, Mr Dare was shot and killed.
00:21He was filming the entire time.
00:23Today, Victor Lewis relived that moment, telling the coroner's court he didn't see or hear
00:29anything at the time because he was so focused on the blaze.
00:33He said it wasn't until Mr Dare dropped to the ground that he realised his friend was
00:38dead.
00:39After fleeing and eventually coming across police some several hundred metres away, he
00:43said the officers told him there was an active shooter.
00:47He criticised the police response, telling the court locals should have been warned earlier
00:51as it would have been known for some time two officers had been gunned down at that
00:56same address.
00:57Mr Dare's wife, Kerry, also took the witness stand and said she waited for hours to be
01:02given any details about her husband's death and labelled her treatment at the scene by
01:06officers as disgusting and immoral.
01:09The coroner's court has already heard constables Rachel McCrow and Matthew Arnold had been
01:14attending a routine job with two other colleagues when they were ambushed by Gareth and Nathaniel
01:20Train.
01:21The brothers and Gareth's wife, Stacey, who are accused of being conspiracy theorists
01:25with extreme religious views, were later killed after a siege with specialist police.
01:30All six deaths are being probed by a Queensland state coroner.