"He looked at me and said "I'm going home to wait for the police"

Robert Strange suffers PTSD and recurring nightmares about the day he watched his friend and colleague gunned down on the job by a money-hungry farmer.

Robert and Glen Turner – two environmental compliance officers for the department of environment and heritage - were held at gunpoint on a country road for 20 minutes while Ian Turnbull subjected them to a terrifying shooting spree.

It wasn’t until Glen was shot three times and near death that he lowered the gun, saying 'I'm going home to wait for the police'.

"It's a struggle, it's a daily struggle in all honesty, living with the nightmares and they are not nightmares because it actually did happen," Robert Strange told Sunday Night.

"[Turnbull] went there with the sole intention in my opinion of killing Glenn Turner and be it if he did it in one shot or be it if he did it in seven or eight, he didn't leave that location until he believed that he had killed him."

Glen's job was to make sure farmers stuck to the rules that limited how much native vegetation they could clear and had investigated the removal of 3000 trees from the Turnbull family properties, which led to a $140,000 fine.

He had made a very powerful enemy.

"If a farmer…had 200 hectares of grazing land that was not developed that may well be worth $2 million," Robert said, "If that farmer clears that 200 hectares and turns it into a cropping land, that land may then be worth five times that amount of money."

"There was always tension. Especially in relation to broad scale land clearing.

So when Ian discovered Glen near his property again two years later on July 29th 2014 Turnbull he showed up with gun and shot him without a word.

"I realised that a short time later, probably 10 seconds later, Glen had been shot within the chin area of his face."

"And the second shot was aimed for his heart"

"I just pleaded with him, you know pleaded with him that we were unarmed, we were here to do a job, that's all we're there to do, he'd respond that we weren't letting the Turnbulls do their job, um, that you know, that Glen had persecuted them."

While Turnbull ranted that Glen had 'persecuted' him Robert was giving his friend instructions to move around the car and stay out of the firing line.

"I had him crouched down calling him forward on the car when Turnbull would move to the back of the vehicle or visa versa. If Turnbull had moved up to the front, I'd say Glen move to the back, move to the back."

As Turnbull continued to make threats and fire his weapon Glen managed to reach into the car window and switch on an EPIRB which sent an alarm with their location to authorities in Canberra.

"I've never been in a war zone, but what that man did under fire is absolutely beyond belief because the bravery he showed should never be forgotten"

As darkness fell Glen made a desperate dash for the cover of bushland and it was the change Turnbull was waiting for.

"He got probably five metres from the vehicle and I saw Turnbull raise the firearm and I think I just said "Oh no"."

"[He] shot him and killed him, lowered his fire arm, looked at me, and said "I'm going home to wait for the police. You can go now."

Glen had been shot for a third time, this time in his back and as Robert held him he was only just breathing.

A neighboring farmer came down the road and Robert flagged him down, but he knew it was too late to save Glen.

"I just said come on, we've got to get home," Robert recalls through tears, "But I knew he was dying."

Back in Tamworth, Glen’s wife Alison had returned home to find a message from that Glen’s emergency beacon had been activated.

"I just thought it was a mistake and they said yes there's been a shooting, Glen's been shot, and I can give you the number of a police officer."

"Eventually I was put through to a detective and he broke the news to me over the phone that Glen was dead."

What appeared to be an open and shut legal case of cold-blooded premeditated murder was not — incredibly Ian Turnbull pleaded not guilty

"There is no - absolutely no excuses, no excuse, it was definitely pre-meditated and it wasn't an accident, it wasn't as a result of anyone’s mental illness.

"It was a planned and cowardly attack on somebody who was defenceless."
In April 2016 the murder trial of Ian Turnbull – now 81 - began in the NSW Supreme Court

Turnbull’s defense argued because of a mental condition he should be convicted of manslaughter - not murder.

His lawyer claimed the environmental officer’s eagerness to investigate land clearing had made the farmer lose control and snap.

Glen’s sister Fran Pearce was outraged.

"I'm not sure how this gets twisted around to be all about a poor old farmer, you know it's not about him, he's the one that caused this, it's actually about my brother who's lost his life doing a job, an important job, and a job he believed in."

The trial lasted 6 weeks and, despite his plea, Ian Turnbull was found guilty of murder and sentenced to 35 years jail with a non parole period of 24 years.

He will die in jail, largely thanks to the emotional testimony of Robert Strange.

"No one has to go to work, nobody, and not come home because of the actions of another person."

"He has done what he has done and he, you know, he has to deal with that. His family have to deal with the fact that he is a convicted murderer and-and that is how he will die."

Robert suffers from PTSD as a result of the shooting, affecting his ability to work, has set up a GoFundMe page to raise money to help out