Emergency operator who took call during shooting saw another alert. Here’s why she didn’t check it immediately

A triple-zero operator took two minutes to follow advice to tell Kerry Dare to call her husband back home as he investigated gunshots on a neighbouring property that ultimately cost him his life.

Emma Donald, a communications operator based in Townsville, was on the phone with Ms Dare in the moments before her husband, Alan Dare, was shot dead on Wains Road at Wieambilla on December 12, 2022, in Queensland’s worst police shooting.

Mr Dare had gone to investigate a fire at his neighbour’s property, after hearing gunshots and loud bangs.

He was unaware his neighbours, religious extremists Nathaniel, Gareth, and Stacey Train, had that afternoon shot constables Rachel McCrow and Matthew Arnold when police attended the property to investigate a missing-person report regarding Nathaniel.

A senior officer told a coronial inquest in Brisbane on Monday that had those officers been provided with the known information about the Trains, including that Gareth was described as “incredibly dangerous”, and Nathaniel had a history of unlicensed firearms, the job would have necessitated tactical police.

The inquest has so far heard details of how the Trains ambushed and gunned down the officers with high-calibre rifles, along with Mr Dare.

Harrowing footage and images show how McCrow and Arnold jumped the Trains’ fence, alongside two colleagues, constables Randall Kirk and Keely Brough, before they were shot within minutes. Kirk and Brough survived under heavy gunfire.

The Trains were killed by police after a lengthy standoff.

On Monday, the inquest heard from Donald, who had taken the triple-zero call from Ms Dare at 5.13pm.

She told the inquest Ms Dare had reported hearing loud bangs and seeing smoke at 251 Wains Road, where the Trains lived.

When Donald began logging the job, she saw another alert on her system that said “repeat”, with a description that “police were in trouble”.

She told the inquest the word “repeat” meant it could be a duplicate of another incident in the area.

However, she did not click on the job to find out more information, as this was against what she had been advised in training, she told the inquest.

“At that time I didn’t know if it was related or not. We’d been told in our training that if we look into a job that isn’t related, we’d most likely get in trouble for it because it’s technically snooping, I suppose, into something that’s not related to us,” she said.

During the call, Ms Dare told Donald her husband would go to investigate.

By 5.24pm, Donald asked in the system log whether she should attach Queensland Fire and Emergency Services to the job, or if it was “not safe” to link them in.

She was later advised people were shooting at police, and QFES should not be called in. The log shown to the inquest said: “Do not leave property, active offenders shooting at police, do not attach QFES at this stage”.

That was the first time Donald was aware police were being shot at in the area, she told the inquest.

At 5.28pm, she was told to tell Ms Dare to get her husband back immediately.

Two minutes passed on the log, and Donald was asked to confirm if she had completed that task.

Donald then apologised on the log, explaining she was calling Ms Dare back.

When Donald called Ms Dare back, Ms Dare told her her husband had been shot. Donald logged this information at 5.30pm in the system.

When asked at the inquest by Counsel Assisting Ruth O’Gorman why she was apologising on the log, Donald said: “It took me a while to look at that message and call back [Ms Dare].”

Donald could not recall what she was doing in that two-minute period, and said she could have “possibly been on another call, but I can’t 100 per cent give you an answer”.

Donald stayed on the call with Ms Dare for half an hour while she got to the safety of other police.

Senior Sergeant Tracy Bailey told the inquest if the four officers knew certain information such as the Trains’ dislike for police, and the firearm history, they would have approached the job differently.

She said had the job instead been deemed high-risk, police in the area would have worked with specialist police such as the Public Safety Response Team to respond accordingly.

The inquest continues.