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Pictured: Keeley Brough, 28, who survived a mass shooting
A rookie police officer who managed to escape from a Queensland shootout that killed two of her peers had sent frantic texts to her family saying her time had come.
Keeley Brough, 28, was just eight weeks into her service when she was caught up in the shooting near Wieambilla, three hours west of Brisbane, at 5pm on Monday.
She was visiting a property with three colleagues as part of a missing persons investigation, when shooters clad in military-style camouflage – missing principal Nathaniel Train, his brother Gareth and his female partner – opened fire.
Constable Rachel McCrow, 29, and Constable Matthew Arnold, 26, were shot dead at the scene. Constable Randall Kirk, 28, was shot in the leg but managed to escape.
Alan Dare, who lives on a neighbouring property, came out to inspect the commotion was also shot before two camouflaged gunmen.
However, Ms Brough managed to escape and hide the bush, and sent frantic text messages to loved ones as she prepared for the worst with the gunmen setting fire to the bush to smoke her out.
The young officer didn’t want to comment when contacted by Daily Mail Australia on Tuesday, but loved ones flocked to her Facebook page to send their condolences.
Keeley Brough (pictured), 28, was just eight weeks into her service when she was caught up in the shooting near Wieambilla, three hours west of Brisbane, on Monday
Faces of the dead: Matthew Arnold, 29, was killed upon arriving at the property, as was Rachel McCrow, 26
‘She did not know whether she was going to be shot, or she was going to burnt alive,’ Queensland Police Union president Ian Leavers told ABC on Tuesday.
‘I do know she was sending messages to loved ones saying she almost thought it was her time. What was going through her mind, one cannot comprehend.’
She was later rescued by a specialist police tactical team which had scrambled to the scene.
Ms Brough always wanted to be a police officer, according to a blog post.
Mr Leavers had only been in the job for two months and did everything ‘she possibly could’.
‘She was in contact with her other colleagues trying to ensure we could get the support to assist their fallen colleagues at this point in time,’ he said.
‘They were just brave brave people who put their lives on the job.’
Emergency crews at the rural property south of Chinchilla on Monday afternoon
The town of Wieambilla, just south of Chinchilla in Queensland, has a population of about 100
Police had attended the Queensland property as part of inquiries into missing man Nathaniel Train (pictured), last seen in Dubbo in central-west NSW a year ago
The officer who was grazed in the leg was treated in the nearby town of Chinchilla.
A neighbour who came to investigate the gunfire and the blaze was also fatally shot.
The tactical police team of 16 officers risked their lives to retrieve the bodies of their two colleagues.
There were reports the gunmen also opened up on the police helicopter deployed to the scene.
Sporadic gunfire was reported by locals through the night before a climactic shootout with the Special Emergency Response Team police about 11.30pm which left three people – reportedly two men and a woman – dead.
The two men were brothers while the woman was the partner of one of the men.
It’s since been revealed police were responding to a request from NSW counterparts for a missing man last seen in Dubbo a year ago.
Nathaniel Train, 46, was last seen in Dubbo in central-west NSW in December last year but had remained contact with family members until October 9 this year before being reported missing.
Four officers were at this Wains Road property at Wieambilla when they were fired upon
The property where the police officers were shot is understood to belong to relatives of Mr Train’s family.
Mr Leavers described the killing of the two officers as ‘ruthless, calculated and targeted execution’.
‘These officers’ tragic, needless and senseless murders have already been felt deeply across Queensland and all over Australia,’ he wrote in a memo to police.
‘Our thoughts are also with police who bravely contained and managed the subsequent operation that has now resulted in the deaths of all the offenders.’
‘We are all in a state of shock and disbelief. To be here tonight and know that two brave police both under the age of 30 have needlessly lost their lives affects all our emotions.
‘To know that she and he are no longer with us in what was a ruthless, calculated and targeted execution of our colleagues and loved ones brings home the very real risks that we face every single day doing our jobs.’
Flags will be flown at half mast at all police stations across Queensland on Tuesday while a floral tribute is building outside Chinchilla police station.
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