An American Christian conspiracy theorist linked with the Wieambilla shooters allegedly made violent threats against law enforcement officials and the World Health Organization (WHO)’s director-general after the religiously motivated terrorist attack, court documents claim.
Donald Day Jr, 58, was arrested on Friday, December 1, and faced court in Arizona for two charges of making interstate threats.
An unsealed copy of the indictment issued by a grand jury on November 29, obtained from the FBI by Crikey, shows that one of Day’s alleged threats came in the aftermath of last December’s attack where two police officers, a neighbour and the three shooters, Nathaniel, Stacey and Gareth Train, were all killed.
Day’s interactions with the Trains were first reported by Crikey as happening on YouTube where the Australian trio posted feverish conspiracy videos in the lead-up to and immediately after shooting the police officers and neighbour.
The indictment only mentions public communications between Day and the Trains. They had frequently interacted with one another through videos and in comments throughout 2022.
In their chilling last video, moments before being shot and killed by police, Stacey Train mentioned Day by name: “We’ll see you when we get home. We’ll see you at home, Don, love you,” she said.
Day commented on the video shortly after. “I tell you, family, that those bastards will regret that they ever fucked with us … Please do what you must do, with determination in your hand and fury in your bellies. Again, tell me that I can help you. Anything that is within my range to do for you, I will not hesitate.”
Days after the attack, Day posted videos to his YouTube account about the Trains titled “Daniel and Jane”, a reference to the middle names of Gareth and Stacey Train, and “brother sister martyr”, where he mourned the Trains.
“It breaks my fucking heart that there’s nothing I can do to help them. They are a people that are not armed, as we are in America, that at least have one resort to fight against fucking tyrants in this country,” he said.
“And here, my brave brother and sister, a son and daughter of the Most High, have done exactly what they were supposed to do, and that is to kill these fucking devils.”
It is alleged that during this video Day violently threatened any law enforcement that came to his property.
“Like my brother Daniel, like my sister Jane, it is no different for us. The devils come for us, they fucking die. It’s just that simple,” he said.
The indictment alleges that Day had previously posted online about being “armed to the teeth” and bragged about owning a rifle and shotgun.
Soon after, Day’s account was removed from YouTube, but according to the indictment the Arizona man continued to post to alt-tech video platform BitChute.
His account frequently commented on videos throughout 2023 on topics such as anti-vaccine conspiracy theories, fake rumours about further lockdowns in California and the United States, and anti-Semitic claims about the media and banking system. Guardian Australia reported that Day continued to post on social media as recently as last week.
Many of his comments frequently mention violence. On a video of Rebel News’ Avi Yemini speaking to Pfizer’s CEO, Day wrote: “there is no way that any one of these monsters would cross my path and survive”.
Another comment posted in February alludes to violence towards police. Replying to another commenter who spoke of plans to “hang the Ropes around the guilty”, Day said: “law enforcement will stay out of the way or be steamrolled”.
The indictment alleges that Day violently threatened Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in a February 2023 BitChute comment on a video of the WHO director-general.
“It is time to kill these monsters, and any who serve them. Where are my kind? Where are you? Am I the only one? Fuckin’ hell,” Day is alleged to have written.
Ghebreyesus was also the subject of a video posted by the Trains prior to their attack. Their YouTube videos featured an array of conspiracy topics including Christian doomsday predictions; anti-vaccine news stories; references to the Central Intelligence Agency’s human experimentation program MKUltra; and QAnon-like claims of child abuse by the NSW Education Department, which had employed Nathaniel until a few months before the attacks.
Earlier this year, Queensland Police announced it had classified the shooting as a religiously motivated terrorist attack inspired by premillennialism, an apocalyptic Christian fundamentalist form of extremism.
The matter is now before the Coroners Court, with a full inquest into the attack being held after August next year.
