The leader of a police extraction team sent to rescue trapped constable Keely Brough from the Wieambilla ambush has told an inquest of the moment he saw the officer emerge from scrub “running for her life” to escape the property.
An inquest on Friday heard evidence from several officers involved in the rescue attempt, which was launched while shooters Gareth, Stacey and Nathaniel Train were nearby and considered “active armed offenders”.
Hours earlier, they had shot and killed constables Rachel McCrow and Matthew Arnold, and civilian neighbour Alan Dare.
Brough remained in dense bushland on the remote Wains Road property for several hours, as police established a command post and made a decision to launch a rescue operation before the arrival of specialist tactical officers.
Sgt Werner Crous told the inquest he assumed command upon arriving at the command post and decided the situation “needed to be resolved as quickly as possible”.
“On the way there I thought to myself that I need four people to form a team to go to where these officers are,” Crous said.
“I didn’t think many more people would put up their hand knowing what the job was entailing.
“When I showed up at the incident site there were many people there, instead of just getting four people willing to enter this dangerous situation I got four carloads full of people.”
Sgt Andrew Gates, who said he became a de facto leader of the extraction team, says he was advised by Crous: “We need to get Keely out, prepare to engage”.
Gates, a highway patrol officer, told the court he “didn’t want to go in, but I did”.
He said three carloads of police officers, including some armed with rifles and others armed with police Glock pistols, entered the Wains Road property on foot. There they observed the bodies of Dare, McCrow and Arnold.
They devised a colour code – calling out “pink” and “blue” – to advise Brough of their position.
Gates says he then saw her emerge from the scrub as the extraction team moved along the tree line.
“Members of the extraction team were yelling out colours, to see if she could hear us, so she knew a location to come to. I saw Keely run down the left hand side [of the driveway], she’s out in the open, I yell out ‘keep your cover, stay with the tree line, get to the fence line’.
“She’s got a Glock in her hand, she’s running for her life. She goes past. That’s the last time I saw Keely.”
Police then used a vehicle to break through the entrance to the property provide cover while the bodies of McCrow and Arnold were retrieved from the property.
After officers then retreated, an urgent call went out for another vehicle to be brought to block the entrance, to prevent the escape of the shooters who remained at the property.
Sen Sgt Christina Esselink told the inquest she had just arrived when the call came, and that she made the decision to take her vehicle to the property.
She was the most senior officer present at the time, and otherwise might have taken command of the operation, per police procedures. She described the communications as “frantic”.
“I looked at my vehicle which drove terribly, big and ugly and strong,” Esselink said.
“[I thought] we’ve got to get it down there … we’ve got to block off the gate.”
Esselink said she knew tactical response officers were on the way, and that she needed to contain the shooters on the property.
She parked the vehicle between two others to block the gate and came under gunfire as she reached for her police tablet.
“It was all bang bang bang, and I thought, oh geez, that [the calibre of the rifle being used] is big. I grew up on a farm, this was, like, big and it’s close, and I thought ‘Oh, we’re in trouble. We’re in serious trouble here’.
“I thought it was a large calibre and it was close.”
As Esselink got out of the car looking for cover, she said another officer screamed at her: “Chrissy! Run!”.
“And then I’ve bolted and he’s lifted me and shoved me behind. I ran rubber-legged over towards him.”
