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Caskets on display during the Queensland memorial service.
Queensland has mourned police officers Rachel McCrow and Matthew Arnold, who were killed in a shooting in Wieambilla. Photograph: SUPPLIED/PR IMAGE
Queensland has mourned police officers Rachel McCrow and Matthew Arnold, who were killed in a shooting in Wieambilla. Photograph: SUPPLIED/PR IMAGE

‘We will not be broken’: thousands pay tribute to Queensland constables in emotional memorial

This article is more than 2 years old

Premier says police officers Rachel McCrow and Matthew Arnold dedicated their lives to being ‘a force for good’

The coffins of Rachel McCrow and Matthew Arnold sat side by side, adorned with blue and white flowers, next to images of their young smiling faces.

Long stretches of silence were followed by the sounds of sniffles as officers dabbed their eyes, making failed attempts to hold back tears.

Thousands of Queensland police officers, politicians, friends and family members sat in the stands of Brisbane’s Entertainment Centre on Wednesday to honour the lives of the fallen constables.

Their grief is raw.

Rachel McCrow’s mother, Judy, walked in arm-in-arm with family members into the memorial service and touched her daughter’s coffin.

Matthew Arnold’s mother, Sue, slumped forward as she watched images of the young constable flash on the screen. First as a child, then as a teenager and finally, as a police officer.

Constable Keely Brough also watched on, surrounded by a sea of blue. Just last week she sent goodbye texts – not sure she’d make it out alive – as she hid in tall grass surrounded by bullets and fire on a remote Wieambilla property.

Queensland police commissioner Katarina Carroll lays a wreath during the memorial service. Photograph: SUPPLIED/PR IMAGE

Her wounded colleague Randall Kirk also attended the service. Brough and Kirk were the two officers who survived the premeditated ambush that cut McCrow’s and Arnold’s lives short.

Police chaplain Jeffrey Baills managed to conjure up a tribute for a devastated community trying to comprehend a senseless tragedy.

“Our hearts bleed blue,” he said.

“What happened on December 12 was un-Australian and does not belong in this country,” Baills told mourners. “This barbaric act has shocked our community, and it’s irreparably damaged the Arnold family and the McCrow family.

“We have had a major attack on the police in Queensland but … we will not be broken.

“But we will, tomorrow, turn up to our shift and we will stand shoulder to shoulder again and seek to do the best we can to keep Queensland safe and fulfil our duties as outstanding men and women.”

For the public, the memorial is a reminder of the faces behind the uniforms. That those killed were more than their jobs.

Starry-eyed and optimistic, both officers had joined Queensland’s police force to make a difference. They were in their 20s and fresh out of the academy when they were murdered.

Colleagues remembered McCrow as a “larrikin” who loved a laugh, a prank and a good meme. They recalled her organising early morning beep-test runs and passing on last-minute notes to less studious recruits during her days at the Townsville academy.

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Before her death, McCrow had spoken about how she wanted to work in child protection and youth justice. A “compassionate” officer who “truly listens”, McCrow was “the kind of officer the world demands”.

Queensland police formed a guard of honour along the memorial procession route after the service. Photograph: Jono Searle/AAP

Sen Sgt Laura Harriss remembered Arnold as a “cheeky” and “charismatic” friend. A triplet and the oldest by just a few minutes, he was “a big brother to all who knew him”.

The state’s premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, told mourners of a fear that the world is “so full of anger, division and ugliness that sometimes we barely recognise it”.

“And then there are people like Rachel and Matthew who remind us all that those thoughts are wrong,” Palaszczuk said.

“Rachel and Matthew were so completely determined to help. To be a force for good. They dedicated their lives to it.”

Queensland’s police commissioner, Katarina Carroll, said Arnold’s dream to become a police officer first started when he was in grade 9.

She said this passion never wavered, despite several police dads threatening to take him to a watch house on a Friday night.

The police ode was read out, before bagpipes screeched and the officers’ coffins were carried out of the venue: “As the sun surely sets, dawn will see it arise. For service above self demand its own prize.

“You have fought the good fight, life’s race has been run. And peace your reward for eternity begun.”

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