Routine traffic stop:

http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/world/53213765-68/park-national-ranger-mount.html.csp

http://www.seattlepi.com/local/komo/article/Park-ranger-fatally-shot-at-Mount-Rainier-2435973.php More is coming in, but not enough yet :-(

More details:
http://www.komonews.com/news/local/Park-ranger-shot-at-Mt-Rainier-136505028.html

I'll keep watch; this is devastating news for all in the Pacific NW. We lost an Olympic National Forest ranger similarly a couple of years ago, also a mother of young children.

My profound sympathies to Ms. Anderson's family and the entire MRNP staff!

I understand the routine traffic stop, but I don't understand why the deceased ranger had set her vehicle as a roadblock, as was reported. A roadblock and a traffic stop are kind of two different things.

They ought to get the shooter.

--B.G.--

Bob: Agreed, when I saw the headline, I thought, "More peace officers die doing routine traffic stops than anything else." They do so many and know nothing about who they are stopping.

But then there is mention of a road block and I want to know why there was a road block? We they looking for this guy? Drunk drivers? Checking for permits?

Regardless, a tradegy for the family, the park and the area.

It's a much smaller, but more pervasive tradegy that park rangers are now hired mostly for their law enforcement roles rather than as educators, rescuers, and stewards of the land.

And they shouldn't don't bother trying to bring the perp in alive so some politically correct public defender can show how he was abused as a child or is mentally ill and needs loving care rather than incarceration.....to say nothing of the waste of public funds.

I suspect this perp will start shooting as soon as he sees the local LEOs. Shoot to protect yourself and others. Keep shooting until the magazine is empty or until the threat is gone, whichever uses up the most ammo!



addedum: The NPS has two kinds of rangers; the unarmed Ranger-Rick types and the sworn, armed law enforcement or NPS Police types.

Edited by wandering_bob on 01/01/2012 16:29:37 MST.

A few more details, updated as of 3:26 pm PST:
http://today.seattletimes.com/2012/01/park-ranger-shot-at-mount-rainier/

Evidently it was a felony stop, with several LE rangers chasing the perp up the road to Paradise (scary place for a chase!). That's why the road block.

Quite a few visitors at Paradise have been locked into the visitor center for safety. They can't get out without passing the perpetrator.

They really need a sharpshooter team in there since the perp has a rifle! I pray that nobody else (except, of course, the perp) gets shot!

Edited by hikinggranny on 01/01/2012 17:06:38 MST.

"Evidently it was a felony stop, with several LE rangers chasing the perp up the road to Paradise (scary place for a chase!). That's why the road block."

No, that explains why there was a road block after the shooting. The original news said that the deceased ranger had set up a road block before the shooting, but it was not obvious why.

--B.G.--

Several of us local "regulars" around here historically do a New Years day snowshoe hike at Paradise today. Didn't happen this year, though. Sure wish I would have been there & could have helped out the rangers.

Edited by hoosierdaddy on 01/01/2012 17:20:50 MST.

Per the Seattle Times source I cited above:

"The incident started about 10:15 a.m., Taylor said, when park rangers attempted to pull over a vehicle on the road just above Longmire. The car kept going.

"When officers radioed that the suspect failed to stop, Anderson, in another vehicle, set up a roadblock by pulling her car across the road a mile or so south of Paradise at a pull out known as Barns Flat."

This is normal police procedure in "failure to stop" cases.

I suspect we'll see more clarification later once things are resolved. While such events are going on, it's hard to get accurate information, because the authorities have more important things to do than spend a lot of time with reporters (who have been known to get things incorrect, anyway).

Presumably the FBI is being called in--federal officer on federal property.

HD...I was thinking the same sad thing. I miss our yearly NYD snowshoeing trips. Just so awful.

Bob, I disagree with police state killing of any and all suspects without a trial.

Barnes needs to be put down like a rabid skunk for shooting a federal officer and mother of two. No trial needed.

Edited by jshann on 01/01/2012 20:17:15 MST.

"Bob, I disagree with police state killing of any and all suspects without a trial."

The shooter seems to be bent on suicide by cop.

--B.G.--

I don't approve of "execution" killings, either, but here we have an extremely dangerous perpetrator armed with a rifle. Taking him out with a sharpshooter team is most likely the only way they're going to be able to get near him, unless he runs out of ammo or succumbs to hypothermia.

As I stated earlier, we probably won't get a lot of detail until the situation is resolved.

Edited by hikinggranny on 01/01/2012 17:58:21 MST.

Person of interest named now. There had been a shooting in the early morning hours in the fairly close by town of Skyway where 4 people were shot after a dispute at a party. Apparently the same guy.

http://www.komonews.com/news/local/Person-of-interest-in-park-rangers-death-a-suspect-in-earlier-shooting-136513003.html

Edited by hoosierdaddy on 01/01/2012 18:52:11 MST.

But who is the shooter? Having a suspect isn't good enough. Maybe I suspect you. You okay with me executing you? Just in case.

Eugene...you talking to me?

Bump, to get this thread on top of the one someone else started later.

Latest update, not much new:
http://www.komonews.com/news/local/Person-of-interest-in-park-rangers-death-a-suspect-in-earlier-shooting-136513003.html

KOMO-TV reported that a man named Benjamin Colton Barnes, 24, was being sought as a person of interest in the shooting.

My heart goes out to the family, friends and colleagues of the park ranger. Like many of you, I visit frequently during all seasons. This breaks my heart, a lot of good people work in that park, love the park and make it better for everyone who visits.

This is terrible news.

Dirk

Exactly. A very sad day for all of us in who love the mountains

Breaking right now. Television news reports that he was "found in a ditch."

http://www.king5.com/news/crime/Massive-search-underway-for-rangers-killer-136532718.html

Good. No further waste of human resources.

Yes, it appears the manhunt is over. Unfortunately, a dead suspect, at least one who didn't die in a gun battle with the authorities, proves nothing, so for now at least, accent on "alleged".

We'll have to wait to see if evidence at the scene implicates him in the killing. Hopefully, he had the murder weapon with him when his body was found, that records or testimony will show it was indeed one of his many guns, and that ballistics can match it to the slugs that killed the ranger.

The apparent cause of his death was not mentioned. A survivalist is unlikely to have perished so rapidly due to Nature alone. No mention was made of any self-inflicted gunshot wounds, but it would sure make pretty convincing circumstantial evidence if both he and the ranger were killed with the same rifle.

No matter the outcome, what a tragic waste of young lives!

It's sad for everyone. What bothers me the most is that here this young man went to the war to fight for our rights, what he may have truly believed and returns with PTSD and can't cope. Sadly, he does what he was taught best to do by our government because of his PTSD, mostly our of fear for his life and then people treat him with little regard. While we may not like what he did; we can't ignore the fact that possibly this country is responsible for his actions and those who also suffer with PTSD. Did he need to die? No. Did anyone that he killed? No. But the facts are staring us in the face. It seems to many in this country that it's easier to sweep the problem under the carpet and say that he and others like him need to die is such a selfish and lazy solution.

Seattle Radio KUOW the first stop was for tire chains, or lack of them.

This would make a hell of a movie plot...oh,wait...it WAS a movie:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjptQSfuTy8

I'll bet all he wanted was "...somethin' 'ta eat on his wa 'ta Portland". That ranger probably drew first blood, too.

Seriously, i bet he was a BIG fan of this movie. What a waste of life. Not every soldier that has PTSD goes nuts, though. At some point you have to stop blaming society and take responsibility for ones own actions.

Edited by bigfoot2 on 01/02/2012 13:54:22 MST.

Looks like the mountain got him.

“He was wearing a t-shirt, a pair of jeans and one tennis shoe”

http://www.king5.com/news/crime/Massive-search-underway-for-rangers-killer-136532718.html

Edited by hoosierdaddy on 01/02/2012 16:35:45 MST.

"Looks like the mountain got him."

Better that way, in that it saves one more person from having to experience the devastating experience of taking a human life.

Not trying to start another flame war, but this guy was aparently an Iraq War vet. In my accounting system, this tragedy goes down as another entry to my ledger of the true cost of the war. Sadly, it will play out over several generations, and is, IMO, one of the most convincing arguments for not getting into wars in the first place. I will say no more on the subject.

Good point Tom. War is horrible in what it does to both sides for years after it is over.

My news said of the killer- "friends described him as a survivalist"

...except for yesterday.

Survivalist rule #1: You must remain alive.

First hand account of backpackers snow camping there.

http://www.nwhikers.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=7995972

my prayers go out to the ranger and her family- what a terrible waste

I (like many of hundred of thousand others) have served in the armed forces, unfortunately like any big outfit there are shi+bags that make it in and this is clearly one of them. He was discharged early (read kicked out!) from the Army for a DUI and improper transporting private weapons (imagine that). Had he not gotten into the Army, my money says he would still have been a loser.

I wish these cowardly/anti-government/"survivalists" /loser/conspiracists were a rarity, but unfortunately they are not. There isn't a day that goes by that we don't get BOLO on some nut job on the loose whose goal in life to destroy someone else's life in the name of some paranoid fantasy they are living out.

Unfortunately these nut jobs often like to "recreate" in the same areas that we do :(

http://media.nj.com/star-ledger/photo/2012/01/10404892-large.jpg

Edited by mtwarden on 01/05/2012 08:35:17 MST.

Would you think most domestic terrorist groups are chock full of former military?

"Better that way, in that it saves one more person from having to experience the devastating experience of taking a human life."

Agreed. And for those that wanted this guy to suffer a horrible death, they got what they wanted.

"Would you think most domestic terrorist groups are chock full of former military?"

No they are not, but like I said the military, like any big institution/business, is not perfect in their screening out potential wackos- so if they (wacko) happen to be looking for a place to "fit in", unfortunately there are many such groups to join :(

hypothermia is not the "painful" death that I would choose for this individual, sitting on death row for a decade or two would be much more painful IMO

the fringe ruin the many.

I saw this just now though, that I thought was pretty cool, the photo at the end is worth noting as well

Edited by TinCanFury on 01/06/2012 11:09:55 MST.