An American extremist arrested by the FBI in connection to the shooting murder of two Queensland police officers drew the attention of authorities by posting disturbing videos online, police allege.
FBI agents arrested Donald Day Jr, 58, on Friday near Heber Overgaard, Arizona, after a joint investigation by the Queensland Police Service (QPS) and FBI.
Police allege the conspiracy theorist “repeatedly sent messages” to cop killers Gareth and Stacey Train before the fatal shootout on their remote property in Wieambilla, rural Queensland, on December 12 last year.
Constables Matthew Arnold and Rachel McCrow, and Good Samaritan neighbour Alan Dare, were shot dead after being ambushed while attending the property for a routine welfare check.
The shooters – Gareth, Stacey and Nathaniel Train – were killed in the police response to the religiously-motivated terror attack.
Police believe Gareth, Stacey and Mr Day were all subscribed to a Christian fundamentalist belief system known as premillennialism.
Investigators described the correspondence between the parties as “Christian, end-of-days ideological messages”.
The US District Court in Arizona released documents on Thursday (Australian time) that outlined two charges of making an “interstate threat” against Mr Day.
Only the first count is connected to the Wieambilla shooting.
The second concerned an unrelated alleged threat made to the Director-General of the World Health Organisation, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
The US documents show the first charge revolves around a YouTube video that Mr Day allegedly posted four days after the shooting on December 16.
The video was titled ‘Daniel and Jane’ – online pseudonyms Gareth and Stacey Train allegedly used.
In the foul-mouthed video news.com.au reported on soon after its release last year, Mr Day allegedly said: “It breaks my f***ing heart that there’s nothing I can do to help them.”
“These are a people that are not armed, as we are in America, that at least have that one resort to fight against f***ing tyrants in this country,” he allegedly continued.
“And here, my brave brother and sister, a son and a daughter of the Most High have done exactly what they were supposed to do, and that is to kill these f***ing devils.”
He allegedly added: “Like my brother Daniel, like my sister Jane, it is no different for us.
“The devils come for us, they f***ing die. It’s just that simple. We are free people, we are owned by no-one.”
Mr Day, who has pleaded not guilty, fronted court in Arizona on Wednesday (Australian time) shortly before the FBI and Queensland police briefed Australian media on the arrest. He will remain in custody.
It’s understood Don was addressed directly in a chilling video believed to have been filmed and posted by the Trains in the moments after they gunned down their victims.
“They came to kill us, and we killed them,” Gareth said, shrouded in darkness with his wife Stacey at his side.
“If you don’t defend yourself against these devils and demons, you’re a coward.
“We will see you when you get home”, Stacey said.
“We’ll see you at home Don,” Gareth continued.
“Love you,” Stacey added before the video ended.
In the days following the deadly ambush, news.com.au received an email apparently from Mr Day defending the train family and espousing media coverage of the killings.
He told news.com.au that he offered the asylum in the US before they carried out the deadly attack.
Instead, he said, they stayed in Australia to “weather the storm”.
“I asked the Trains to abandon the hell that Australia has become and relocate to America … they chose to weather the storm of tyranny inundating their homeland and to fight against it,” he said.
Assistant Commissioner Scanlon said the investigation was still in its “early days”, but police are not aware of any other Australians with connections to Mr Day.
The FBI’s Nitiana Mann said Mr Day is currently being held in an FBI facility in Tucson, Arizona.
A coroner’s inquest into the attack is ongoing.