About 16:30 local time on Monday, four junior police officers went for a routine visit to a rural property in a remote Australian area called Wieambilla. Within hours six people would be dead.
Two officers were shot and killed, as was a concerned neighbour, before a long siege ended with specialist police fatally shooting three suspects.
As Australians grapple with shock and grief, they are asking how and why such an incident occurred.
The officers travelled to the property – about 270km (168 miles) west of Brisbane, Queensland – to check on a man who had been reported missing in New South Wales. “For us, this was a standard job. We go to thousands of these every week,” Queensland Police Commissioner Katarina Carroll has said.
The four officers – from two different local stations – met up on a dirt road outside the property before heading up its long driveway.
After leaving their cars and approaching the house, they were inundated with gunfire, authorities say. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said it was devastating, particularly for the relatives and friends of those “murdered in this atrocity”.
Credit: bbc.com
