When the Queensland authorities wanted to understand the motivation of the Wieambilla killers, they turned to Josh Roose.
The political sociologist and associate professor of politics at Deakin University was given access to the killers’ writings to paint a picture of the process of radicalisation that led Gareth, Stacey and Nathaniel Train to shoot three police officers and a neighbour in cold blood in a 2022 ambush at a remote property about 350km west of Brisbane.
He was one of two experts who later gave evidence at a coronial inquest into the deaths. Almost one year to the day that the Wieambilla inquest wrapped up, another three police officers were shot at a rural property near the town of Porepunkah in Victoria. Two were killed, and one was wounded and remains in hospital.
Roose says there are “remarkable parallels” between the two shootings – despite the fact that Dezi Freeman, who is accused of the Victorian attack, has been linked to the “sovereign citizen” movement, which the Trains did not identify with.
Both, says Roose, were “anti-government extremists”.
“In both cases, obviously an ideological orientation and deep hatred of police was critical,” he says.
Freeman called police “terrorist thugs”, “frigging Nazis” and “Gestapo”. Gareth Train – the leader at Wieambilla – called them “devils and demons” and, Roose told the inquest last year, believed himself to be at war with police .
Freeman reportedly subscribes to a set of beliefs described as “pseudolaw” or “sovereign citizenship”; believing that the government’s decisions, and therefore its laws, are not legitimate and that adherents are not required to follow them.
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The Trains, says Roose, were not “sovereign citizens”, though Gareth briefly dabbled in the theory. Instead, he says, they developed a radical form of Christian theology, “pre-millennial, dispensationalist apocalyptic ideology – effectively the belief that the end times were coming”. The inquest heard that Gareth was a lifelong conspiracy theorist but his beliefs evolved into a more sinister form as an adult, particularly while living on the remote rural property.
Both Gareth Train and Freeman appear to have been radicalised online, Roose says. Train allegedly developed his views in the YouTube comments section, communicating with a US conspiracy theorist, Donald Day.
“Covid-19 in particular was a real accelerant for this, people spending a lot of time online, feeling disconnected, angry, marginalised, and looking for answers,” Roose says.
“And the sovereign citizenship ideology places all the blame back on government for personal woes.
“There are deeper-seated socioeconomic issues that tie in to the broad polarisation of society, and particularly across democracies. It’s a global phenomenon.”
US sovereign citizens have killed police in a string of terrorist attacks since the 1990s. Terry Nichols, a self-described sovereign citizen, helped plan the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, which killed 168 people.
The FBI has described it as a “domestic terrorist movement” and a threat to law enforcement. The New South Wales police came to the same conclusion in 2015.
Roose says the movement is growing and is increasingly dangerous. That danger is particularly present when policemust visit a remote property. In Victoria, police were executing a warrant; in Queensland, it was a missing person’s search.
“Properties holds symbolic value to sovereign citizens, and they view it as an invasion, effectively, when police come on to their property,” he says.
“VicPol seemed to be aware of that; they had 10 officers there … But being aware of the explosive, incredibly violent nature of this ideology is critical, and being prepared for all future interactions.”
Inquest findings ‘being prepared’
The president of the Queensland Police Union, Shane Prior, who spoke to the family of the Wieambilla victims this week, says the Porepunkah incident had “brought back a whole lot of unwanted and traumatic memories”.
“The death of fellow officers – although interstate – serves as a solemn reminder of the risks all police face daily,” he says.
The Queensland state coroner, Terry Ryan, sat for five weeks of hearings last August, investigating the deaths of civilian Alan Dare and police constables Rachel McCrow and Matthew Arnold, as well as the three Trains.
He heard days of evidence about the police response and the process of online radicalisation.
A spokesperson for the Queensland coroner’s court says the findings “are currently being prepared”.
The Arnold and McCrow families used the inquest to push for changes to “policing processes, procedures or policies”, demanding reforms “be introduced immediately”.
Speaking on behalf of both families, McCrow’s mother, Judy, said: “We pose this question to authorities: could a national weapons and ammunition register, drones and satellite-based communication strategies reduce the current risk?”
Roose says income inequality and economic injustice will continue to drive people toward dangerous ideas like sovereign citizenship.
“This is a symptom of a much deeper malaise: a lack of trust in government, a lack of engagement, particularly amongst older Australians in towns and suburbs,” he says. “They’ve got to be reached. They’ve got to rebuild that social compact.
“People who are doing well in life … do not go and subscribe to this sovereign citizen stuff.
“It’s important to understand this is not a problem that’s going to go away.”
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