Family involved in Manukau Habour boating tragedy speak, major cutbacks on the way for Auckland and big wins in last night’s Lotto draw in the latest New Zealand Herald headlines. Video / NZ Herald
The heartbroken widow of an innocent man killed in an ambush attack on police officers has spoken out about her agonising wait for answers as he lay dying.
Alan Dare was killed after a group of four police officers were ambushed by a group of three armed assailants while theycarried out a missing persons call at a property in Wieambilla, three hours west of Brisbane, on Monday afternoon.
Dare, who lived nearby the property, met up with another neighbour to investigate what was going on after spotting smoke, but never made it back home.
Kerry Dare lost her husband Allan in the horror shooting at a property in Wieambilla. Photo / A Current Affair
“I was on the phone to 000 and they told me there was an incident,” Kerry told A Current Affair on Nine Network.
Dare told NCA NewsWire she was kept in the dark by police on what was unfolding and was left to endure a horrific wait for information about what had happened to her husband.
“They’re not telling me anything and I don’t know if they will tell me anything,” she said.
“I know that he’s gone but I don’t know who killed him.”
Alan Dare was prompted to investigate after hearing gunshots and seeing smoke coming from a neighbouring property.
She was at the police roadblock when she was told that two police officers had been killed and that Alan had also been shot at the Train brothers’ property.
“I screamed at people with guns and walked up to people with guns held to their cheek and big vests on and asked them what they were doing to get Al out, and they just looked at me blankly and kept walking,” she said on ACA.
“They knew he was there and they left him there for 13 hours, if he was shot at 5 o’clock they left him there, I didn’t see him until 6 o’clock the next morning.”
“He chose to go help someone and you’re letting him die on the run.”
Dare said officers used his car to retrieve one of the surviving officers
“They thought he was expendable because he was just a blockie, someone who was hiding away,” Dare said.
Alan Dare, 58, leaves behind a family including grandchildren after he was shot and killed at the Train brothers' property at Wieambilla, Queensland
The Queensland Police Union has paid tribute to Dare after his bravery in venturing out to investigate the situation, with chief executive Ian Leavers saying that his thoughts were with his family.
“He was a law-abiding person who went to investigate a fire and he was murdered,” Leavers said.
“He didn’t deserve that and it’s just an absolute disgraceful act by this murderous trio.
“It’s also hard for the police as well because we know an innocent man was murdered as well, sadly through the hatred for police.
“He was just a good neighbour going out to do the right thing and he was murdered in cold blood and that is really gut-wrenching for us as well.”
Constable Rachel McCrow, 29, and Constable Matthew Arnold, 26, were shot and killed at a Queensland property.
The horrific attack began after four officers attended the property as a part of an investigation sparked by a missing person report of Nathaniel Train.
The crews from Tara and Chinchilla Police Stations arrived at the remote property at about 4.40pm, with a source close to the investigation told NCA NewsWire what unfolded next was “very, very rapid”.
Constable Rachel McCrow, 29, and Constable Matthew Arnold, 26, arrived first, honking their horn to alert the residents of their presence, with Constable Randall Kirk and Constable Keely Brough following behind.
After there was no movement from the house, the four officers left their cars and jumped over a locked fence while approaching the property.
Seconds later, the officers were under heavy fire from a group of camouflaged assailants, now known to be brothers Nathaniel and Gareth Train, and the latter’s wife Stacey.
McCrow and Arnold were instantly hit, and fell to the ground, while Kirk and Brough were forced to run for their lives.
NCA Newswire understands Kirk was also shot in the leg in the same hail of gunfire but managed to make it back to his police car as he hadn’t jumped the fence.
The offenders gave chase and fired into his car as he drove away, calling for help, causing him to become showered in shards of glass.
As the assailants tried to hunt down Kirk, his colleague Brough had managed to escape on foot into dense scrubland.
The young officer had only been on the police force for eight weeks, with Queensland Police Union president Ian Leavers revealing a bushfire had been lit by the gunmen allegedly in an attempt to force the remaining two officers out of hiding before backup arrived.
