Australian Police Ambush: 'No Match' for Delusional Beliefs of Train Family
In a shocking turn of events, three years ago on a remote Australian property, a trio of conspiracy theorists lay in wait for a confrontation with Queensland police. The ensuing hours-long gun battle resulted in the deaths of six people, including four officers and two civilians.
The state coroner, Terry Ryan, has accepted evidence by a forensic psychiatrist that the Train family's actions were driven by a "folie à trois" - a shared psychotic disorder based on the paranoid delusions of Gareth Train. His wife, Stacey, and brother, Nathaniel, who was once married to each other, adopted these delusions, which turned a routine response to a missing person's report into a deadly confrontation.
The forensic psychiatrist, Dr Andrew Aboud, described the Trains as "morally insane" and stated that they did not know what they were doing was wrong. According to Ryan's findings, the Train family believed they were serving "God's will" and that police wore "meat suits" and were demons. Their actions were deemed justifiable by them, but were fundamentally understood - by themselves - as defensive.
In contrast, the Queensland Police Service described the incident as a "religiously motivated terrorist attack." Associate Prof Josh Roose of Deakin University argued that online radicalism has to be taken into account by emergency services, and believes an increasingly older cohort of men are likely to carry out violent acts.
Coroner Ryan's inquest found that at least some of the firearms used by the Trains was lawfully obtained, but his recommendations were focused on improving information sharing between state police services, adding aerial resources, and better training for emergency service operators. The coroner rejected calls for additional police equipment, finding it difficult to see how officers could have been adequately equipped to respond to the events as they unfolded.
The victims' families expressed disappointment with the coronal recommendations, stating that they come too late and may have prevented Matt and Rachel Arnold's deaths if better processes had been in place.
In a shocking turn of events, three years ago on a remote Australian property, a trio of conspiracy theorists lay in wait for a confrontation with Queensland police. The ensuing hours-long gun battle resulted in the deaths of six people, including four officers and two civilians.
The state coroner, Terry Ryan, has accepted evidence by a forensic psychiatrist that the Train family's actions were driven by a "folie à trois" - a shared psychotic disorder based on the paranoid delusions of Gareth Train. His wife, Stacey, and brother, Nathaniel, who was once married to each other, adopted these delusions, which turned a routine response to a missing person's report into a deadly confrontation.
The forensic psychiatrist, Dr Andrew Aboud, described the Trains as "morally insane" and stated that they did not know what they were doing was wrong. According to Ryan's findings, the Train family believed they were serving "God's will" and that police wore "meat suits" and were demons. Their actions were deemed justifiable by them, but were fundamentally understood - by themselves - as defensive.
In contrast, the Queensland Police Service described the incident as a "religiously motivated terrorist attack." Associate Prof Josh Roose of Deakin University argued that online radicalism has to be taken into account by emergency services, and believes an increasingly older cohort of men are likely to carry out violent acts.
Coroner Ryan's inquest found that at least some of the firearms used by the Trains was lawfully obtained, but his recommendations were focused on improving information sharing between state police services, adding aerial resources, and better training for emergency service operators. The coroner rejected calls for additional police equipment, finding it difficult to see how officers could have been adequately equipped to respond to the events as they unfolded.
The victims' families expressed disappointment with the coronal recommendations, stating that they come too late and may have prevented Matt and Rachel Arnold's deaths if better processes had been in place.
I'm so confused about this whole thing... like, what even is folie à trois? Is it like a real thing or something? 
And how did the police not know that the Train family was crazy?! It seems to me like they were expecting some kind of confrontation and had plans in place for it. But at the same time, I can see why people would think that's justifiable if you believe you're fighting against evil or something... 
But what about all those innocent police officers who got hurt? 
And why didn't they have better training to deal with situations like this? It seems so preventable now. 
Do you guys think online radicalism is a big problem in Australia? I've seen some of the YouTube vids that Gareth Train was watching and it's super concerning... 
. they believed all these crazy stuff about police being demons and whatnot, but at the same time, they thought they were doing god's will 
. anyway, it's wild that forensic psychiatry was able to break down their delusions and show how messed up their thinking was 
. i'm also kinda surprised that the coroner didn't recommend more police equipment or training 
. Associate Prof Josh Roose's insight on the correlation between online extremism and violent behavior is particularly poignant 
. However, I would argue that the coroner's recommendations should also include more proactive measures to prevent such incidents in the future, such as enhanced community outreach programs and crisis intervention training for emergency services 
This is just so shocking! The fact that the Train family thought their paranoid delusions were justified because they believed it was "God's will" 
is just heartbreaking. It's like, no one should have to go through that kind of trauma and loss, let alone the families who lost loved ones in the crossfire 
.
. Can't we have better processes in place to prevent something like this from happening again? I'm all for improving info sharing between police services and adding aerial resources 
, but at the end of the day, what can we do to truly stop these kinds of tragedies?
. We need to be vigilant and educate people about the dangers of misinformation 
. But how far can we take it? Is it just a case of "more awareness" or do we need more concrete solutions? 
. Like, can you even imagine showing up at a police station with guns blazing just because you're convinced the cops are demons? 
I mean, I get that delusional beliefs can be pretty strong, but come on! It's not exactly a secret that the Train family had some major issues going on... and to make it even more messed up, they actually believed their own delusions were justified 
idk what's more shocking tho - the fact that they thought police wore "meat suits" or that some prof is saying online radicalism is to blame for this 
coroner's recommendations are kinda vague tho
its wild but at the same time its so sad that there was such loss of life on both sides i think online radicalism is def a thing to consider when it comes to emergency services they gotta be aware of these types of situations... better info sharing and training could have made all the difference 
what do u guys think tho?
like what was going thru the train family minds? 
ugh, another example of online radicalism causing harm 
I feel like we need to be more careful about how we approach these situations, because some folks might already be so far gone.