When heavily armed special response police moved in to arrest Gareth, Nathaniel and Stacey Train, they faced a barrage of gunfire.
Earlier that day, the Trains had shot dead two police officers and a neighbour at their fortified home at Wieambilla, near Tara in the Western Downs.
The officers' armoured Bearcat vehicle was peppered with bullets and the police helicopter came under fire from the stockpile of ammunition the Trains had amassed in the months leading up to the incident on December 12 last year.
But none of the three killers should have been able to purchase or possess ammunition or weapons.
Police have confirmed Nathaniel Train's gun licence was suspended on August 22 last year and his brother Gareth and ex-wife Stacey did not have a firearm's licence.
Under Queensland law, when buying ammunition, or possessing and storing ammunition, all purchasers must present the seller with a valid licence — a card with a photo of the holder and the class of weapons they are allowed to own.
However, police said Nathaniel Train was still able to purchase ammunition around the Wieambilla region in the lead up to the shooting.
Police told the ABC that dealers sold ammunition legally to Nathaniel Train.
"Retailers of weapons and ammunition are only required to physically sight the weapons licence of the purchaser,'' a police spokesperson said.
The police spokesperson said they had been unable to serve the suspension notice on Nathaniel Train as he could not be located in the months before the shooting, leaving him still "physically in possession of his weapons licence".
"The ammunition was lawfully purchased in Queensland at retail outlets surrounding Wieambilla," the spokesperson said.
Licence checks
Queensland Police Minister Mark Ryan said there is already a publicly accessible online system that allows dealers to check the status of Queensland licences.
He said he had asked stakeholders if it should be mandatory for dealers to have to use this system to check the status of Queensland weapons licences.
"The Queensland Police Service is always looking for ways to improve community safety and, as such, I have asked them to discuss with stakeholders whether legislative change is required to make it mandatory for dealers to use the Status Check system to determine a person's eligibility at point of sale."
He also said work was underway to improve the state's weapons licensing systems, including the introduction of a weapons licensing management system.
Queensland Firearms Association president Jade Cleaver said he understood that Nathaniel Train had a NSW firearms licence.
He said dealers were unable to check on interstate licences to see if they were valid.
He also said some dealers in remote areas of regional Queensland had problems with the internet at times, making it difficult to access the database that QPS maintains to conduct a check on Queensland licences.
Border breach
Nathaniel Train's licence was suspended when police found he had illegally dumped weapons at the Queensland/New South Wales border in December 2021, breaching COVID-19 border rules.
On Thursday, Queensland Police Deputy Commissioner Tracy Linford revealed an officer had gone the Train's property in August 2022 to speak with Nathaniel Train about the dumping of the firearms.
Deputy Commissioner Linford said the officer arrived at the property to find the gate locked but could see there was CCTV at the location.
"So, he wrote a card with his name requesting that the occupants of the home contact him,'' she said.
"He's waved it in front of the CCTV and he's put it in their letter box. Now shortly after that he's tried calling the address to no avail and I think he went back to the property and the card was still in the letter box.
"So that led him to believe there was nobody at the property and as a consequence a warrant was left over the firearms offences ... of those firearms being left unsecured at the e-gate [border crossing gate]."
Deputy Commissioner Linford said the coroner will make the final determination on the motivation and what led to the attack.
