Neighbour who went to Wieambilla property with Alan Dare during ...
A man who stood shoulder-to-shoulder with his neighbour when he was gunned down by three shooters at Wieambilla, has told an inquest more people could have died because residents were not warned there was an active shooter in the area.
Victor Lewis told the court he heard gunshots, explosions and saw smoke billowing from a remote property adjacent to his on December 12, 2022.
He had no idea that less than an hour earlier, two police officers, Constables Rachel McCrow and Matthew Arnold, had been shot dead as they entered the neighbouring land.
The police officers were responding to a missing person's report, but walked into an ambush.
Nathaniel, Gareth and Stacey Train waited, concealed in "hideouts" and heavily armed.
A view from one of the hiding spots on the Trains' property at Wieambilla. (Supplied)
One of the hideouts on the Wieambilla property. (Supplied)
One of the hiding spots on the Wieambilla property. (Supplied)
Inside one of the hiding places found on the Wieambilla property. (Supplied)
Helicopter footage shows Trains hiding, shooting
Vision released on Wednesday shows the dramatic moments during the Trains' final shoot out with police.
The shooters can be seen taking cover behind logs and cars in the night vision camera of two police helicopters.
Nathaniel lays behind a log to the left of a car parked at the front of the Train house.
Loading...Gareth is near a water tank to the right while Stacey can be seen inside the house.
"Both Gareth and Nathaniel can be seen to be shooting," counsel assisting the coroner, Ruth O'Gorman told the court earlier this week.
"A muzzle flash [is seen] from inside the house, which appeared to be from a small calibre rifle that must have been handled by Stacey."
By 10;40pm all of the Trains had been killed by specialist police.
Neighbour says he feared smoke was another bushfire
Earlier in the afternoon, Mr Lewis and his neighbour Alan Dare decided to drive to the property to investigate, after seeing smoke and hearing gunfire.
Mr Lewis today told a coronial inquest he feared another bushfire had broken out.
When the pair arrived at the front gate of the property, they discovered a police car had been set alight.
Mr Dare was standing next to Mr Lewis, filming on his phone, when he was shot.
He tragically captured his own death on camera.
Video of the moments leading up to the moment he was shot was played in court this week.
Loading...Mr Lewis said he watched Mr Dare fall forward.
"[I] looked down, he didn't look good," he said.
"I didn't know what was wrong with him, so I rolled him on his side.
"When I rolled him over, I saw blood on his back… I realised he'd been shot. I realised I most likely heard that shot.
"Not knowing what was going on, [I thought] it was time to leave there, get away from there.
"I crawled out, ran to my quad bike and drove to the top of the hill – there I was totally out of sight [from the shooters]."
'It's getting very bad actually'
Today, the inquest also heard from Mr Dare's wife, Kerry.
Audio was played to the court of Ms Dare's phone call with triple-0 operators at 5:17pm, before her husband left to investigate the neighbouring property.
The two police officers had been fatally shot about 30 minutes prior.
"There's been three or four big bangs since you've been on the phone. [The smoke is] getting bad, it's getting very bad actually. It's getting closer," Ms Dare told the operator.
She then said she could hear more bangs.
Ms Dare told the inquest at this time, her husband was with her, and he was on the phone to Mr Lewis.
"My neighbour's talking to Al at the moment, he's on the hundred acres next door," she tells the operator.
"What's Vic doing? Is it closer to them? Is it 251 [Wains Road] where the shot guns are coming from?" Ms Dare can he heard saying to her husband.
"Where are you going?" she asked her husband, before speaking again to the operator.
"My husband's going to pick the neighbour up and they're going to investigate closer," she said.
The operator replied: "I probably wouldn't. I'd probably just stay at home. I know this might sound bad, but I'm trying to get some more information about what's going on."
About 30 seconds pass.
Ms Dare continues speaking with the operator, before the operator said: "I'm going to absolutely advise against that [leaving to investigate]."
"He's gone, sorry," Ms Dare responded.
'I could have been dead as well'
Today, Mr Lewis took aim at emergency services, and said he should have been told there was an active shooter in the area.
"We knew nothing of this [the shooting]. Myself and Alan knew nothing of this," he said.
"If we were given a warning, that something was going on, we would not have been in the position we were in.
"And not only Alan could have been dead, I could have been dead as well, along with Kerry and my wife if we'd all gone to see what the fire was. We could have all been [dead]."
Mr Lewis said he had the utmost respect for police, but was speaking out, "to make things better in the future so something like this doesn't happen again".
"That's all I want," he told the inquest.
Ms Dare said if she'd been warned about the active shooters, she would have told her husband to stay home.
The court previously heard the bodies of the police officers were removed before 7pm, but officers were determined they could not remove Mr Dare's body because it was too dangerous.
Ms Dare told the court she was informed her husband had died later that evening, but said getting information from police was difficult.
"[We] weren't given anything," she said.
"[It's] disgusting. Immoral."
The inquest continues.