Police search for suspect in Mt. Rainier National Park killing

[AOW]

http://www.king5.com/news/local/Ranger-shot-at-Mount-Rainier-National-Park-136505173.html

Police search for suspect in Mt. Rainier National Park killing

by KING 5 News

Posted on January 1, 2012 at 11:43 AM

Updated today at 5:48 PM

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MOUNT RAINIER, Wash. – More than 100 officers - including those from the FBI - are searching for the man who shot and killed a National Park Service ranger at Mount Rainier National Park on Sunday morning.

The suspect is believed to be armed with several rifles.

The ranger has been identified as 34-year-old Margaret Anderson.

The shooting occurred at 10:11 a.m. near Longmire Ranger Station. A park spokesman said another ranger attempted to make a vehicle stop near Paradise and the driver fled. When the driver was stopped at a roadblock about a mile below Paradise, shots were fired and Anderson was hit.

After being shot, Anderson radioed for help as the suspect fled on foot.

It took 90 minutes for back-up to reach Anderson because the assailant continued shooting at law enforcement as they arrived.

The Washington State Patrol, the Pierce County Sheriff’s Office and the FBI are on the scene.

Sgt. Ed Troyer said the suspect's vehicle has been secured.

"What we found is evidence of somebody that probably knows how to survive in the woods ... weapons, body armor, extra equipment,' said Sgt. Ed Troyer.

Detectives are looking for 24-year-old Benjamin Colton Barnes as their person of interest.

"We don't know much about him other than he has some weapons training and he has some pretty high-end weapons," said Troyer. "He was up here ... it looks like, by the items that were in the car, he planned on being up here, maybe even hiding out up here."

The park was closed while police searched for the suspect. Visitors at the Paradise area were put in lock down at the Jackson Visitor Center along with park staff. Armored vehicles were being brought in to transport people from the surrounding cabins out of the area.

Anderson was married with two children, ages 4 and 2. Her husband is also a ranger at Mount Rainier.

Anderson was the youngest of three children, her father, Pastor Paul Kritsch said.

He said his daughter always had an interest in wildlife and the outdoors and wanted to help people and that's what finally led her to being a federal park ranger.

“The community has lost a friend, somebody who cared about her job, cared about the people, cared about their safety, and wanted to make sure that everybody was having a safe time when they came to the park,” he said.

[ArgenteumTelum]

I am truly sorry 2012 had to start with this as the first news I have seen all day. May the suspect be brought to justice and may we all share in prayer for her husband and children. Enough said......

[beefsteak]

I'm not happy someone died today, let alone a Mother of 2 young daughters.

BUT...............
I have to ask myself, what is the purpose of a Forest Ranger? It is NOT to restrict travel and usage of public parks!!!! FAR FROM IT!

The freedom TO TRAVEL is a sacred right from the Creator who gave us legs.

Forest Rangers/Park Rangers hassle people all the time over stupid stuff pre-crime police type behaviors.

And to park in the middle of a road, as in a road block, preventing any and/or all of us from using our lands, our public park land, just to raise revenue and show "strength" is nuts. And this woman drank the kool-aid and paid with her life!

I bet there is a CB radio message in this true narrative somewhere....informing everyone behind a prior stopped car / CB'er about the bogus reason for the 1 park ranger road block. Bet the shooter just snapped.

If it was really a serious "park matter" wouldn't the roadblock have more than 1 "blocker?" And wouldn't the single female PARK RANGER have backup beside, behind and up on the ridge protecting her 6?

There's something to this power hungry story by TPTB that was to send a message of fear about use of public lands in the great state of Washington. I don't know what it is, but I'm betting it will come out if people are just patient.

In the meantime, another funeral, and another fear story, and another pair of kids with only one parent instead of 2.

And on NEW YEARS? This has many markings of a governmental false flag event, because so many pieces are illogical and slanted in the reporting thereof.

I hope the family pursues this event and sues the snot out of the govt supervisors who put this National Park Ranger up to this poorly thought out, ordered behavior.

Used to be, the park rangers were servants to the people, like helping people and wild animals not get entangled, and also to spot/keep an early eye out for forest fires.

TRAFFIC COPS and Revenue Raisers? This stinks. And so does the death of this mother. Sounds like pre-cursor to the http://gold-silver.us/forum/showthread.php?57537-Obama-To-Unveil-Gun-Control-Reforms-In-Near-Future thread already started on G-S today...

This story makes me feel ill.


beefsteak

[Cebu_4_2]

Beef I think you are right on, the timing of said event, the mention (this time) of several rifles, no backup, and then the play of 'her family without a mother'. This is MSN, and in being so did this even happen? I mean if no one was there, no one with a camera (aren't those banned now?) and no witnesses how can you even imagine this story is true? MSN has set this up, I doubt everything they report. If it's bad look to the good and reverse. Rinse wash repeat. I take it with a grain of salt.

[Mouse]

Visitors at the Paradise area were put in lock down at the Jackson Visitor Center along with park staff. Armored vehicles were being brought in to transport people from the surrounding cabins out of the area.

[midnight rambler]

Visitors at the Paradise area were put in lock down at the Jackson Visitor Center along with park staff. Armored vehicles were being brought in to transport people from the surrounding cabins out of the area.



Holy shit. Gotta protect the unarmed sheep. What a mind fuck.

[hoarder]

If the Mount Rainier National Park Rangers are anything like the USFS Rangers around here, I would venture a guess that the shooting was antagonized and provoked by the victim.

[beefsteak]

Hoarder,
again, you, midnight and cebu-'s post makes me wonder all the more at the waste of human life, sacrificed by this brainwashed/programmed woman.

I'm all for women getting ahead, and equal work for equal pay!!!!

But fer GOD'S SAKES, use your God Given mind out there, women...especially if you have kids?!!!!!!!! Do give a thought to what you are teaching by example, especially in a pointless death.

Lemme see if I got this right...
refuse a stupid order for a non-backstopped roadblock, get fired and go home to your family with 2 young daughters and live to tell t'tale, or take orders and never see the light of day again...hmmmm

I sure know which one I'd want my sister/daughter/niece/mother to choose if ordered to do something stupid like that park ranger was in that situation---if it's even true the way it is told!


beefsteak

[lapis]

"What we found is evidence of somebody that probably knows how to survive in the woods ... weapons, body armor, extra equipment,' said Sgt. Ed Troyer.

"We don't know much about him other than he has some weapons training and he has some pretty high-end weapons," said Troyer. "He was up here ... it looks like, by the items that were in the car, he planned on being up here, maybe even hiding out up here."

My first thought was, "I wonder what rogue agency he belongs to?"

[midnight rambler]

If the Mount Rainier National Park Rangers are anything like the USFS Rangers around here, I would venture a guess that the shooting was antagonized and provoked by the victim.

But hoarder, the Commie Nooz Nyetwork called this park ranger "a gentle, docile park ranger", you know, harmless and benign like a little helpless puppy - are you suggesting national park rangers and USFS rangers would be anything other than "gentle" and "docile"?? ???

[BrewTech]

My first thought was, "I wonder what rogue agency he belongs to?"

Maybe I didn't read the article close enough, but how the hell would they know that he has "some weapons training"?

[Cebu_4_2]

Maybe I didn't read the article close enough, but how the hell would they know that he has "some weapons training"?

That's my whole point of this story on MSM

[Twisted Titan]

Maybe I didn't read the article close enough, but how the hell would they know that he has "some weapons training"?

because the were provided with the intel from the DoJ by Eric Holder

[collector]

I heard it being reported that he was an Iraq war vet....the fable about the Oklahoma city tool Tim McVeigh comes to mind.
Crazy war vet, high powered modern weapons, cop killer - they're setting up for something or to put forth some new anti-gun legislation. I guess the dead border patrol agent that was killed with Holders smuggled guns doesn't get the desired sensationalism.

[midnight rambler]

Anti-gun legislation on final approach and cleared for landing, flight is on schedule -

http://l.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/D_10elkjZrn8ePErpgKU1w--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9aW5zZXQ7aD02MTI7cT04NTt3PTQwOA--/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/Reuters/2012-01-02T060850Z_746870968_GM1E81213IW01_RTRMADP_3_SHOOT ING-RANGER.JPG

[EE_]

Note to all military personel...only photograph yourself with guns and your military uniform on.
People are much more comfortable with our highly US government trained killing machines in uniform.

[midnight rambler]

See? Guns are obviously so evil that even highly trained and disciplined US military troops cannot be trusted with guns when out of uniform when offbase or discharged.

[Buddha]

Happy New Year, you're a fucking terrorist.

[vacuum]

And of course the guy is later found dead.
http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/01/9875731-man-sought-in-killing-of-rainier-ranger-reportedly-found-dead

Just waiting for the part where is writings are found online, where he states he supports Ron Paul, is a 911 truther, white supremest, a sovereign citizen, etc, etc

[midnight rambler]

What's up with all those symbols he has a tats? Is that a gang sign in the center of his chest? MK UUUltra??

http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/MSNBC/Components/Photo/_new/120101-Barnes-bcol2-9p.380;380;7;70.jpg

[midnight rambler]

'PTSD' + Tavi stock = "whatever we need to further our agenda"

PTSD - a small price to pay for our national security interests

[old steel]

Anti-gun legislation on final approach and cleared for landing, flight is on schedule -

http://l.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/D_10elkjZrn8ePErpgKU1w--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9aW5zZXQ7aD02MTI7cT04NTt3PTQwOA--/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/Reuters/2012-01-02T060850Z_746870968_GM1E81213IW01_RTRMADP_3_SHOOT ING-RANGER.JPG

Another victim of Bush/Cheney/

Updated at 11:35 a.m. ET: "Barnes possibly suffers from post-traumatic stress following his deployments to Iraq, the mother of his child alleged in court documents."

http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/01/9875731-body-found-likely-man-sought-in-killing-of-rainier-ranger

[Cebu_4_2]

Suspect in ranger's slaying found dead in creek

Benjamin Colton Barnes, sought in a massive manhunt in Mount Rainier National Park, apparently died from exposure barely a mile from where he had fled into the woods a day earlier.
By Seattle Times staff (http://search.nwsource.com/search?searchtype=cq&sort=date&from=ST&byline=Seattle%20Times%20staff)

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/art/ui/navbrdr_lt.gifhttp://seattletimes.nwsource.com/art/ui/previousarrowActive.gifPREV 1 of 9 NEXT http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/art/ui/nextarrowActive.gifhttp://seattletimes.nwsource.com/art/ui/navbrdr_rt.gif

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/ABPub/2012/01/02/2017147411.jpg (http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/ABPub/zoom/html/2017147790.html)
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/art/ui/zoom_photo.gif (http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/ABPub/zoom/html/2017147790.html)AP
THE SUSPECT: Benjamin Colton Barnes had crisscrossed the area during pursuit.



http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/ABPub/2012/01/02/2017147167.jpg (http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/flatpages/video/mediacenterbc3.html?bctid=1361666278001)
Raw video: Park service confirms Mount Rainier body is Barnes (http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/flatpages/video/mediacenterbc3.html?bctid=1361666278001)
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/art/ui/Video_link.gif (http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/flatpages/video/mediacenterbc3.html?bctid=1361666278001) Play video now (http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/flatpages/video/mediacenterbc3.html?bctid=1361666278001)




Lewis-McChord connection
The slaying of a Mount Rainier National Park ranger is the latest in a series of high-profile crimes linked to soldiers or veterans who recently served at Joint Base Lewis-McChord. Others implicated in or convicted of serious crimes: Pfc. Dakota Wolf, 19, is charged in the stabbing death of Scarlett Paxton, 19, in Kirkland on Nov. 30 while Wolf was AWOL. He has been in the Army less than a year and never deployed abroad.
Sgt. David Stewart, 38, an active-duty Army medic, led law-enforcement officers on a high-speed chase down Interstate 5 in April. Stewart killed himself and his wife, who was found in the car dead of a gunshot wound. Their 5-year-old son also was found dead in the family's home.
Ivette Gonzalez Davis, then a 24-year-old Army specialist, was sentenced to life in prison in August 2010 for shooting two fellow soldiers and kidnapping their baby.
Sgt. Sheldon Plummer, an active-duty soldier, pleaded guilty to strangling his wife in February 2010 in their Thurston County home. He received a 14-year sentence.
Hal Bernton,


Driven relentlessly through chest-deep snow by his pursuers and unprepared for bitter, freezing temperatures, the suspect in the Sunday slaying of a Mount Rainier National Park ranger died cold and wet overnight — lying half-submerged in Paradise Creek and wearing one tennis shoe, a T-shirt and jeans, barely one mile from where he had fled into the woods.
Indications are that Benjamin Colton Barnes, 24, died from exposure. His body showed no sign of injuries, and he was carrying a handgun, a magazine of ammunition and a knife, said Sgt. Ed Troyer of the Pierce County Sheriff's Department.
"The manhunt has been concluded," announced Steven Dean, FBI assistant special agent in charge, at a news conference outside the park's main gate Monday afternoon.
The FBI recovered another ammunition magazine near Barnes' body, and the sheriff's Swift Water Rescue Team found an assault-style rifle about 50 yards upstream.
Officials said Barnes had left survival gear in his car, which he fled after firing on rangers Sunday.
Killed was 34-year-old Ranger Margaret Anderson, the mother of two young children, who was gunned down after she had set a roadblock to stop a car being pursued after failing to stop at a chain-up checkpoint. A cruiser being driven by Ranger Dan Camiccia, who was in pursuit of Barnes, also was peppered with gunfire as it approached. Camiccia was not injured.
A Pierce County SWAT unit, sent to render aid to Anderson, also came under fire, according to law-enforcement officers, delaying efforts to reach the injured park ranger. Officials say Anderson was shot while still in her vehicle and never had a chance to return fire.
What Anderson and the others couldn't have known Sunday when they attempted to stop Barnes' blue Pontiac was that he apparently had been involved in a shootout eight hours earlier at a Skyway home where four people were injured, two critically. King County sheriff's Sgt. Cindi West said Barnes and several other armed individuals were having a "show and tell" with their guns when an argument devolved into a gunfight.
Whether Barnes had additional gear and weapons in his car when he fled the Skyway home shortly after 3 a.m., or whether he retrieved them from elsewhere, he was heavily armed and equipped to survive in the wilderness when he arrived at the national park about 10 a.m.
Authorities quickly identified him as a "person of interest" in Anderson's shooting because the abandoned Pontiac was registered in his name.
After Anderson was shot, Barnes fled into heavy woods and deep snow, where a surveillance plane using heat-tracking equipment charted his meandering path overnight. While his body was found about a mile from the shooting site, Barnes had traveled much farther, crisscrossing Paradise Creek several times, apparently in hopes of eluding his trackers, Troyer said. The body was found partially in the creek, just above Narada Falls.
The Army confirmed Monday that Barnes had been a private first class whose military service ended in the fall of 2009. He received a misconduct discharge at Fort Lewis (now Joint Base Lewis-McChord) after he was charged with DUI and improper transport of a privately owned weapon. By then, he had served two years and seven months of active duty, according to Army Human Resources Command information cited by Maj. Chris Ophardt, a spokesman for Joint Base Lewis-McChord.
While at Fort Lewis, Barnes served with a Stryker brigade and saw duty in Iraq. Army officials were unable Monday to identify which Stryker brigade Barnes served with.
The FBI's Dean said Barnes served in communications while in Iraq.
He had struggled after returning from Iraq. In July, Nicole Santos, the mother of his 1-year-old daughter, obtained a protection order and curtailed his visits with his daughter because of angry, erratic and sometimes suicidal behavior, according to child-custody documents filed in Pierce County Superior Court.
"I just feel there is so much instability," Santos wrote in a July 19 petition seeking to restrict Barnes' access to the child.
Barnes had "deployed to Iraq in 2007-2008 and has possible PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) issues," she wrote. "He gets easily irritated, angry, depressed and frustrated."
A relative of the 25-year-old woman said Santos was in hiding from "this nightmare." The relative, who asked not to be named, said Santos had a "very short" relationship with Barnes in which they had a child but never married. The relative said Santos has not had anything to do with Barnes since obtaining the restraining order in July.
"It's sad for everybody," said the relative, adding that she did not know Barnes well.
Barnes was 21 and still in the Army in March 2009, when he was cited for driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs after being stopped about 4 a.m. by a state trooper on Interstate 5 in South Seattle, according to court records. On the citation, Barnes gave an address in Adamsville, Tenn.
While the case was pending, Barnes was ordered by a judge to remain on his military base, except for off-post military purposes.
Barnes, charged in King County, pleaded guilty to the DUI charge on Aug. 10, 2009. On the plea form, he listed his education as General Educational Development (GED), the equivalent of a high-school diploma.
On Feb. 24, 2010, Barnes was sentenced to one day in jail, with credit for a day already served; placed on supervised probation for six months; and ordered to pay a $350 fine. He also was ordered to use no alcoholic beverages or nonprescribed drugs and to complete alcohol-education programs, according to court records.
In June 2010, Barnes was cited for unlawful recreational fishing in the Snoqualmie River, including possession of an undersized trout and the use of an improper hook.
Anderson's slaying has stunned her colleagues and the National Park Service, which has seen only eight other rangers murdered in the line of duty in the past century.
"We have never had an incident like that at Mount Rainier National Park," park spokesman Kevin Bacher said Monday morning.
This was the first slaying of a ranger in the park, although rangers have died on the mountain itself.
"Our rangers are very much in shock this morning," Bacher said. "We ... absolutely take it personally. Everybody knew Margaret. Everybody was friends with Margaret. She didn't have an enemy in the world."
Anderson and her husband, Eric Anderson, had worked at Rainier for about four years. They have two daughters, ages 3 and 1.
The manhunt resulted in a shutdown of the park, and 125 visitors and 17 staff members were held in lockdown at the park's Jackson Visitor Center until midnight, when they were brought out in small groups accompanied by law-enforcement officials, spokesman Lee Taylor said. An additional 25 people were safely evacuated from Longmire. All civilians were out of the park by 3:30 a.m., Taylor said.
Rangers have one of the most widely varying jobs at Mount Rainier. As the park's front-line law-enforcement officers, they drive lonely rural roads by themselves and do everything from issuing speeding tickets to responding to car accidents to arresting lawbreakers. They also hike trails, respond to fires and are some of the first called out to search for lost or injured visitors.