First, as bullets hurled into the soil around her, Constable Keeley Brough feared she’d be shot dead.
Later, as she crawled through long grass outside a rundown weatherboard in remote Queensland, she thought maybe she’d be burned alive.
Police work near the scene of a fatal shooting in Wieambilla, Queensland on Tuesday. Credit:AAP/Jason O’Brien
Caught in an ambush only eight weeks after graduating from the police academy, she watched as the grass lit up around her – her attackers were trying to flush her out.
Desperate, she reached for her phone and called for backup. Then she sent goodbye texts to her family.
This is the story being shared by the force’s top brass as they try to make sense of how two of their own survived, and how two other officers and a concerned neighbour were shot dead in cold blood.
Struggling to understand the actions of killers that showed no compassion, Queensland Police Union president Ian Leavers told reporters how Brough and her wounded colleague Constable Randall Kirk, both 28, survived Monday’s six-hour siege in Wieambilla, about three hours west of Brisbane.
The union president said even as Brough lay on the ground believing she was about to die, “she never stopped trying to do the right thing and communicate with her colleagues”.
“[The perpetrators] actually lit the grass on fire to try and have her stand up, so they could shoot her dead,” Leavers told Sky News.
Earlier on Monday afternoon, four officers had gone to the rural property to investigate reports of a missing person, believed to be a former school principal from NSW. They were met with a hail of gunfire.
Police returned fire, but constables Matthew Arnold, 26, and Rachel McCrow, 29, were critically injured and died at the scene. A 58-year-old neighbour was also killed.
After her two police colleagues were executed, Leavers said Brough took cover in long grass on the property, but the assailants showed “no compassion” and started a fire to try and flush her out of hiding.
“She did not know whether she was going to be shot or she would be burnt alive.
“I know she was sending messages to loved ones saying she was at a point where she thought it was her time. What was going through her mind … one can’t comprehend.”
“She did not know whether she was going to be shot or she would be burnt alive.”
How two police officers were able to survive the incident, Leavers said he would “never know”, but Brough and Kirk successfully made contact to request further police assistance.
Authorities said a siege situation ensued at the property until late on Monday – it took 16 officers to retrieve the bodies of their colleagues – and specialist police officers and PolAir responded.
Both Brough and Kirk remain in hospital on Tuesday.
Speaking through tears, Queensland Police Commissioner Katarina Carroll said the pair “bravely did what they could to save their colleagues in the most horrendous circumstances”.
“To think that they survived the scene, let alone then got out to make phone calls and call for assistance, was just extraordinary,” she said.
“I will shortly meet with Keeley, and I know that she’s already talked people through what took place. All the people that I have spoken to cannot believe how she survived and what she did during that period of time.”
Queensland Police Commissioner Katarina Carroll speaking outside Chinchilla Police Station after Monday’s deadly shooting. Credit:Cloe Read
Carroll said after surveying the scene in Wieambilla, it was clear the two surviving officers had hidden in an “exposed area” of the property and it was unbelievable they got out alive.
“In my opinion, those officers did not stand a chance.”
With Cloe Reed
Most Viewed in National
From our partners
Source: Read Full Article
