Authorities arrest Arizona man in connection with deadly 2022 Australian shooting
Dec. 6 (UPI) -- An Arizona man was arrested last week in connection with a religion-motivated attack in Australia last year with ties to "Christian end-of-days" extremist ideology, authorities said Wednesday.
Law enforcement arrested a man identified as Donald Day, 58, near Heber-Overgaard, in the northeastern outskirts of Phoenix, last Friday. Authorities said Day sent the alleged suspects in a mass shooting in Wieambilla, Australia "end of days" messages for months before the shooting.
The alleged attackers -- Gareth, Stacey and Nathaniel Train -- fought law enforcement in a gunfight for hours, killing two officers and a bystander before they were eventually killed on Dec. 12, 2022.
"We know that the offenders executed a religiously-motivated terrorist attack in Queensland," Queensland Police Assistant Commissioner Cheryl Scanlon said during a news conference in Australia. "They were motivated by a Christian extremist ideology and subscribed to the broad Christian fundamentalist belief system known as premillennialism."
A Tucson, Ariz., Grand jury indicted Day for interstate threats connected to comments posted online in December 2022 allegedly inciting violence in connection with the shooting. There are currently no plans to extradite him to Australia.
At the time, Queensland Police Commissioner Katarina Carroll said it was the "largest loss of life" from a single incident in the area in recent memory.
Australian authorities identified those killed as neighbor Alan Dare, Constable Rachel McCrow and Constable Matthew Arnold in a rural residence in Queensland.
