Two of the victims are police officers who came to investigate a complaint about a disappearance
The Australian authorities confirmed this Tuesday the shooting death of six people, including two police officers, in a shootout occurred the day before in a rural area of the state of Queensland, in the northeast of the oceanic country.
The deaths of the two police officers and a civilian were first reported last night after four officers went to a rural property in Wieambilla, in the Western Downs region, some 270 kilometers west of Brisbane, at around 4:45 p.m. local time. (06:45 GMT) on Monday, to investigate a missing person report.
“The operational response to the Wieambilla siege incident was concluded last night. Despite the efforts of the police, the matter could not be resolved peacefully and the three offenders were downcast mortally by specialized agents,” Queensland Police Commissioner Katarina Carroll said today. “In total, six people have lost their lives,” Carroll said at a press conference in the town of Chinchilla, in Western Downs, which was broadcast by Australian public broadcaster ABC.
Among the dead are police officers Matthew Arnold, 26, and Rachel McCrow, 29, as well as a 58-year-old neighbor, who was not identified. The three attackers, two men and one woman, who had “considerable weapons,” also perished in this confusing incident, the commissioner said. Likewise, another police officer was injured and a fourth was unharmed, while another civilian managed to flee the scene with his life.
“The fact that the other two survived is a miracle,” Carroll added, noting that it will take authorities “several days, if not weeks, to unravel every aspect of the scene, but every second of what happened.”
For his part, the president of the Queensland Police Union, Ian Leavers, described the murder of the two officers as a ruthless and “cold-blooded” “execution”, according to statements collected today by ABC. “As soon as they entered the property, they were inundated with gunfire and never had a chance (to defend themselves),” Leavers said, considering that the “ruthless and murderous trio showed no kind of compassion.”
The four Queensland police officers went to Wieambilla’s property on Monday afternoon at the request of police from the neighboring state of New South Wales to check on the whereabouts of a missing person. “According to my report, that person had been missing for about 12 months, but contact had been maintained with her. However, that contact was lost in recent days and they (New South Wales Police) just wanted to verify the disappearance of that person. “, explained the commissioner.