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ABC News
ABC News
National
Lucy Stone and Kevin Nguyen, ABC Investigations

Extremist views of Gareth, Stacey and Nathaniel Train exposed in YouTube videos from night of police shooting

Haunting vision from Gareth and Stacey Train which appears to be filmed on the night of the police shooting has revealed the extent of their extremist views. 

WARNING: This story contains content that readers may find distressing.

The couple, along with Gareth's brother Nathaniel Train, shot dead two police officers and a local man before all three offenders were shot dead by police.

Four officers had gone to the remote property to investigate a report about Nathaniel Train going missing from New South Wales in October when they came under fire.

Police Commissioner Katarina Carroll had described it as a "business as usual" job.

In the video uploaded to YouTube, the violent extremists say "devils and demons" came on to their property.

"They came to kill us and we killed them," Gareth says.

Stacey is next to her husband Gareth in the vision and says, "we will see you when we get home".

In another video Gareth says previous welfare checks had been conducted. When asked about Gareth's claims, Queensland police said it would be inappropriate to comment.

The YouTube channel, which has now been deleted, contains many posts referencing COVID conspiracies, anti-vaccination and sovereign citizens.

The ABC has retrieved an archive of videos from both YouTube and another video platform that is popular among far-right and fringe communities, which appeared to belong to Gareth and Stacey Train.

Police are aware of the vision which is now part of their investigation.

A day before the fatal shootings, the second channel also posted about Nathaniel's missing person's case as well as several anti-police videos.

Metadata scraped when the video was archived showed it was posted on December 12, the night of the fatal shooting. It is unclear when it was recorded.

Stacey and Nathaniel Train worked in a string of regional state schools but were unvaccinated — a decision that put an end to their careers.

Stacey Train quit her job at the Tara Shire State School on December 16, 2021.

Sources close to the family say the COVID mandates and restrictions made the unemployed 45-year-old mother of two more vulnerable to the conspiracy theories held by her husband Gareth Train.

Nathaniel Train had already left his role as a principal with Education NSW in August 2021 and had gone off the radar after he said he suffered a cardiac arrest. 

Communications seen by the ABC and substantiated by sources close to the family reveal his mental health had also deteriorated at this time.

In the wake of the brutal killings, attention has turned to how the Trains so quickly became killers, and the influence of online extremism.

Sources also told the ABC Gareth had long held some extremist views about the role of government, religious groups and police, which had deepened during the pandemic with comments under the name 'Gareth Train' appearing on sovereign citizen and conspiracy theory websites from 2019, and increasing in 2021.

Commissioner Carroll this week said authorities would look closely at Gareth Train's online activity on conspiracy theory and sovereign citizen websites, as part of the investigation.

On Thursday Home Affairs Minister Clare O'Neil said the internet had "turbocharged" conspiracy theories and disinformation.

"Before we get into the discussion about what's happened, it's really important that we let law enforcement and national security agencies do their job," Ms O'Neil said. 

"Once the picture does start to clarify, it is likely that radicalisation will form a part of it.

"There will be deep and very important policy questions for us here as a parliament to think about how our country prevents and deals with acts of violence.

"But today is not the day for those discussions. Today is a day for grieving."

Deakin University senior research fellow for political and religious extremism Josh Roose said the Trains were caught up in a "perfect storm" of events that exposed them to conspiratorial thinking and extremism.

Speaking off the back of the reporting about the Train family, Dr Roose said radicalised people often experienced "profound, emotional" life-changing events like the loss of a loved one or a catastrophic event that shifted their thinking.

Media urged to not re-post video

The Queensland Police Service issued a statement saying the Trains footage "is distressing to the families of those involved and police".

"We respectfully request media outlets, including social media platforms and traditional media outlets, to remove this content from their platforms and discontinue broadcast, if they have not already," the statement said.

"We also urge members of the public not to re-post or share this content."

ABC News has chosen not to show the video or details of the accounts it was posted on. However, comments from the Trains that outline their apparent motives and actions have been included.

Queensland Police Union president Ian Leavers said the videos should not be shared by media outlets as "that is exactly what these cold-blooded executioners wanted".

"They wanted notoriety, publicity and fame for their evil, deranged and insane views and they should be de-platformed immediately and not have their evil amplified," Mr Leavers said.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese also encouraged media outlets and others to not republish the Trains' recordings "in any way".

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