According to a report published by The Daily Beast on Thursday, an Australian family belonging to an extreme fundamentalist Christian movement murdered two police officers and a civilian in a bizarre terrorism plot — and the movement has a following in the United States as well.
The report states that “Gareth, Nathaniel and Stacey Train died in a stand-off after killing constables Rachel McCrow, 29, Matthew Arnold, 26, and their neighbor Alan Dare, 58, on Dec. 12.”
The group was involved in an extreme religion known as “premillennialism,” Queensland Deputy Police Commissioner Tracy Linford said, calling the attack on the officers a “religious terror attack,” according to The Beast.
Linford added that “the religious group had a connection to a similar group in the U.S., and that officers had shared information found in text messages with the U.S. police.”
“The incident happened when four police officers, including the two slain officers, were ‘lured’ to the Train farm, which had been set up with a sophisticated surveillance system and military-grade training facilities including camouflaged hiding places and dirt mound barriers and mirrors strategically placed on trees” the report states. “They also found six weapons, three bow and arrows, a collection of tactical knives.”
After the officers were killed, survivors summoned backup, leading to a shootout that killed the extremist family.
Adherents to Premillennialism believe Christ will reign over the earth for a millennium after a period of extreme earthly suffering. Many of its members have ties to the “sovereign citizen movement,” a largely US-based extremist movement that opposes the federal government.
