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The police officers who shot dead the killers of two young Queensland officers were members of the state’s elite Tactical Response Group and were among the most highly trained police officers in the country.
The Special Emergency Response Team (SERT) is based in Brisbane and Cairns and its members are called upon to handle the highest risk incidents across the state.
SERT officers are trained to end siege and hostage situations, deal with armed criminals on the loose, and undertake counter-terrorism operations.
The unit was called to Wieambilla, three hours west of Brisbane, on Monday afternoon after what began as a routine missing person check.
The Special Emergency Response Team (SERT) is based in Brisbane and Cairns and its members are called to high-risk incidents across the state. SERT team members appear in an operation on the Sunshine Coast in 2018
SERT officers are trained to handle siege and hostage situations, deal with armed criminals, and undertake counter-terrorism operations. A SERT team is shown taking position while a gunman was hiding in Brisbane in 2013.
Four general duty officers attended the property where Nathaniel Train and his brother Gareth fatally shot officers Matthew Arnold, 26, and Rachel McCrow, 29.
A third officer, Constable Randall Kirk, was shot in the leg, while a fourth, Constable Keely Brough, managed to escape before the gunmen built a fire to scare her away.
Constables Kirk and Brough, both 28, survived, but the brothers killed the trains neighbor, Alan Dare, 58, who went to investigate after hearing the shots.
Sixteen SERT officers were dispatched to the location and engaged in a siege that escalated into a shootout that ended around 11:30 p.m. when Nathaniel Train, his brother, and his brother’s wife, Stacey, were killed.
The team members, who are highly experienced in search and rescue extractions, also recovered the bodies of their comrades shot and killed.
Gareth Train, a conspiracy theorist who claimed the 1996 Port Arthur massacre was a “false flag” operation to disarm the Australian population, had posted comments online critical of SERT.
Constable Rachel McCrow, 29, (left) and Constable Matthew Arnold, 26, were shot dead on Monday in Wieambilla, three hours west of Brisbane. Both were based at the Tara police station.
SERT was called to this house in Wieambilla on Monday afternoon after what began as a routine missing person check. Nathaniel Train and his brother Gareth his died in the ensuing siege along with Gareth Train’s wife.
Queensland Police Commissioner Katarina Carroll said on Tuesday she could not elaborate on SERT’s actions due to “operational sensitivities” but said the three criminals were shot dead by specialist officers.
“We call them when there is a lot of fire, a lot of ammunition and weapons,” Commissioner Carroll said.
‘They were called in for a certain reason and I take my hat off to them. They did a tremendous job. That is what they are there to do. They are specialist officers.
Commissioner Carroll said the scene facing the SERT team was “extraordinarily harrowing” and what they had to do was “extraordinarily difficult.”
The Monday night operation was the highest-profile showdown in the unit’s history, dating back to 1968 when 33 men were chosen to form the Emergency Squad.
The Monday night operation was the highest-profile engagement in SERT’s history, dating back to 1968 when 33 men were chosen to form the Emergency Squad. A SERT officer is shown escorting a man into custody after a siege in Brisbane in 2021
Today, the main unit of SERT is based in the state capital as part of the Specialist Response Branch of the Queensland Police Service Operations Support Command.
Four years ago, SERT members helped arrest two gunmen involved in a six-hour siege at Auchenflower in Brisbane in which a police officer was shot.
Nathaniel Train (above) and his brother Gareth shot dead two young officers
They were also among the security forces assigned to protect the 2014 G20 summit in Brisbane, as well as the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games.
SERT’s slogan ‘Brothers In Arms’ was dropped in 2018 after complaints that it was not gender-neutral because it was only accepting female applicants.
Joining the ranks of SERT is a rigorous exercise. Before even qualifying for a three-day selection course, candidates must undergo a regimen of grueling aptitude tests.
In one task, prospective members must complete 10 pull-ups, 35 push-ups, and 100 sit-ups before running 10 km in less than 46 minutes and then swimming 400 m in less than 10 minutes.
Those who progress to the next phase face what is considered the most difficult and demanding selection process in the Queensland Police Service.
Candidates are subjected to physical and mental endurance challenges under individual and team conditions.
They endure sleep deprivation, their survival skills are tested, and they need to face phobias, including the fear of heights and enclosed spaces.
Queensland Police Commissioner Katarina Carroll said on Tuesday she could not elaborate on SERT’s actions due to “operational sensitivities” but said the three criminals were shot dead by specialist officers.
Officers who pass the first selection process are invited to participate in a 14-week training course in which the first month is devoted to physical training.
The next fortnight features education in rural tactical surveillance and marksmanship. Six more weeks are spent developing skills such as driving, speed rope, and melee actions.
Successful course participants apply for positions on a team where they will receive additional training before becoming members of Operation SERT.
From there, members can continue to increase their skills with advanced training done with other police and military units.
SERT reportedly has a long tradition of cooperation with Japanese special assault team officers, with whom they share tactics, equipment, and training methods.
SERT officers are shown attending a house in Alexandra Heads on the Sunshine Coast as negotiators try to speak to a man they believe may help with a homicide investigation.
SERT members in good standing are armed with M4 carbine assault rifles and are the only police officers in Queensland to carry the Heckler & Koch USP pistol as a sidearm.
SERT was formally established as a full-time tactical group in 1992 to replace the part-time Special Weapons and Operations Squad.
Police were first called to the Wieambilla property to check on Nathaniel Train, a former headmaster at Walgett Primary School in northwest New South Wales.
Some loved ones had not seen Train for over a year and he had not been heard from since October. He was reported missing last week in Dubbo.
SERT members are shown attending a house in Townsville in February 2021 after reports that a gunman was hiding inside