It is such a peaceful, beautiful place...

But lunatic people with guns are everywhere, it seems...

My condolences to her family and all who loved her.

Those falling crime and murder rates kinda knock your assertion of it's pedestal.

Guess what? Many places haven't taken reports on random vehicle break-ins either.

My last two car breakin-ins, they didn't even mail me the reporting form. But this has been common practice for years, so I doubt it's the causation for a long-term drop in the stats.

Which, of course just causes more problems.

How does that work?

I shake my head in sadness. How do people like this get weapons like this?

even for a deranged killer, it's a poor and cowardly choice.

Why do people do stuff like this?

Similiar killings have taken place here, ambush killings. It's not personal, it's symbolic. Dehumanization?

problem, but sped away. So I don't think it's symbolic otherwise he would have shot the first Ranger, probably.

My very first thought was actually a large-scale growing operation in the park or some sort of other drug-related thing. Could also be warrants, etc.

Or maybe just a nutjob.

And sorry, I don't know that it was a 'him.' Was it a man?

If someone else saw the shooter, this may help a lot. But good grief, think of a manhunt in those woods.

Some of that countryside is thick and there are streams to muddy a scent if dogs are employed.

What a mess. And shots were fired at more than one person or vehicle. The person who did this needs to be caught tonight before 'he' can get away.

I really don't think that 'closing the park' will do it, either. Too large an area.

Said that's the only info they have. This was when it broke about an hour ago.

I had to take pictures with my camera so the flash would light up a few feet, and that's how we made it to the road, a few feet at a time. Once on the road, no lights and I had to feel my way along the cars and when I thought I found mind, get down on my hands and knees and put my lighter right up to the license plate. It was as though the darkness swallowed any light.

But, these guys will have infrared surveillance technology and helicopters, so they may be successful, but yeah, it is going to be really hard to find him.

A Clark County Deputy was shot in the face by such a nut. A female Deputy who was checking up on a domestic disturbance. I can't link using my Droid. So, these New Year gun nutz are everywhere. My condolences to the Rangers family and community.

I had a friend who quit as a ranger because she said that she would have to work with people, hunters and others, carrying guns and she couldn't. Rangers do police type work among other duties. They were supposed to call the sheriff if they needed backup with guns. Well, I don't know how familiar you are with sheriffs in rural places but often they are an hour or more away from where they are needed. It's a terrible policy and I'm surprised there haven't been more of these incidents.

that if she were armed, she would be alive today.
Just ask the armed police officers killed in Lakewood...

Hopefully the suspect will be caught quickly.

As a campground host I was supposed to keep unruly campers in line most of whom were armed especially during hunting season. If things got out of hand, I was supposed to call a ranger for backup, but that unarmed ranger was as vulnerable as I was. I always called the sheriff first and then the ranger because a report was needed.

I'm not aware they are unarmed. They are around here if they are on enforcement duties, but it's been a couple of years since I've been to a National Park.

and the rangers weren't armed with guns. My friend was a WA state ranger and she quit when they passed the law that rangers couldn't be armed with guns in WA state. This was more than fifteen years ago but I don't believe the law has changed. I tried to find something on Google updating that information but couldn't find anything.

National Park Service law enforcement officers aren't being asked to make traffic stops without carrying weapons themselves.

One thing that has changed is that visitors to National Parks are now allowed to carry weapons legally, as of 2010. Prior to that, simply carrying a gun rather than actually using it, was against the law and grounds for law enforcement action.

and the majority of the rangers are unarmed. Wouldn't there also be a difference between rangers who do a variety of things and officers that are specifically for law enforcement? Back in my camp host days, in Washington State, it was up to the sheriff to do most of the law enforcement although the rangers had to do a lot of it as well in the absence of Sheriffs until they could get there.

law enforcement park rangers aren't going to disarm because Washington State passes a law.

i mean, hello.

but yes, you're correct that some rangers are law enforcement jobs and are trained officers, complete with weapons and some rangers are fee collectors, some do interpretation, the latter two aren't armed.

when i was at the Grand Canyon, our law enforcement rangers were most definitely armed and us naturalist/interpreters were most definitely not. and we were told if we saw someone with a firearm (then illegal) to contact our police.

I worked in Washington state for the Forest Service and none of the Rangers were allowed firearms and their jobs were not that clearly defined. They all did law enforcement besides their specialty. Different state, different laws. Also, Grand Canyon is a National Park so maybe there are different rules. I never worked in a National Park so maybe I am wrong here however I have not been able to find any information that states the rules for rangers in Mt. Ranier is any different than the rest of the state. Strange, we almost went to work there but then got offered another job we wanted better so we took it instead.

Our law enforcement officers at Grand Canyon had the same bosses as those in Mt. Rainier's Park...the US Government.

----------

And the park ranger in Washington's Mt. Rainier National Park was armed:

Anderson would have been armed, as she was one of the rangers tasked with law enforcement, Bacher said. Pierce Co. Sheriff's spokesman Ed Troyer said she was shot before she had even got out of the vehicle.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2012/01/01/national/a120431S12.DTL#ixzz1iKfQfpIe

(and I think you're blurring the difference between park rangers and park rangers who are sworn peace officers for the agency their work for)

Although federal laws pre-empt state laws, if there is no federal statute then the federal employees have to comply with state laws. If you can find a federal statute that states federal rangers must carry firearms, then that ends the discussion. Perhaps someone who knows about this and can point to that statute might weigh in.

the ranger was armed, period.

whatever laws there are in Washington State do not stop what a federal law enforcement officer carries as a weapon, period.

Just saying.

Condolences to her family.

be easy! At least they have his car and can hopefully find out stuff about him from that.

He finally decided to turn himself in. I guess it was hard on him out there in the woods, but the authorities were not able to find him, the forest hid him that well.

if he turned himself in, but he was able to sneak into inhabited areas and get food and stuff. Don't know how this guy will fare. It's getting cold up there now, too.

Investigators have a "strong person of interest" in the fatal shooting of a Mount Rainier National Park ranger Sunday. Detectives are looking for 24-year-old Benjamin Colton Barnes, according to a flyer being passed around by law enforcement at the scene.

Investigators have also recovered a car filled with weapons and body armor, along with survivalist gear, said Det. Ed Troyer with the Pierce County Sheriff's Department. But Troyer would not say for sure yet that car belongs to Barnes.

Meanwhile, an intense manhunt continues for the armed gunman who fatally shot 34-year-old park ranger Margaret Anderson following a traffic stop, and the 368-square-mile park in Washington state remained closed.

Authorities believed the gunman was still in the woods with an assault rifle. They asked people to stay away from the park, and for those already inside to leave. Troyer said there were about 100 people hunkered down in lodges and cabins on the mountain. They were asked to stay put because they could be in the line of fire.

Troyer also said it appeared there were still visitors hiking on the mountain who could not be reached and were not aware of what was going on.


Read more: http://www.seattlepi.com/local/komo/article/Park-ranger-fatally-shot-near-Mt-Rainier-2435973.php

Looks like he's planning to hide out and that's a big territory there.

Plenty of water, fish in the streams (I know people who have gone there to fish) and rugged terrain when you get into it. There are caves to get shelter in, but only if one knows where they are.

I hope it snows like hell so he comes out.

weather forecast -- 29 tonight, but no snow for several days.

He left his survivalist gear in the car! But he probably knows what he's doing.

Police search for suspect in Mt. Rainier National Park killing

Updated today at 5:48 PM

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...

More at the link:

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

I hate to say it, but he kinda looks like a wingnut, a Timothy McVeigh sort of guy. I'm guessing he's not upset about what he did, though. Not much chance of turning himself in. We'll see out this pans out and I hope none of the officers get hurt trying to apprehend him.

I know it's cold, damp and dark as a well out there right now. When it's like that in the mountains, it's as if the mist is made of black ink. Just impossible to see.

R.I.P. Margaret Anderson

"The Thin Green Line"

The snow at longmire is not very deep. It'd be relatively easy to elude people.

Tragic. WTF is the point of shooting an unarmed park ranger?

Person of interest in Mt. Rainier killing is suspect in Skyway shooting

http://www.nwcn.com/home/?fId=136505173&fPath=/news/local&fDomain=10212

the Skyway shootings and I didn't understand how/why that got into the piece about the Ranger shooting. NOW I get it.

So, it's possible he hightailed it up to the woods to hide out because he knew they were after him for his part in the Skyway shootings. They caught one guy, but THIS was the guy they were looking for.

It's possible he won't be taken alive.

he doesn't know how to hang out in the woods (I sure wouldn't).

Sorta of zombie apocalypse training. But they don't go around shooting people as far as I know, though. I don't think the elments are gonna get this guy.

He might even get out of the park in the darkness. I don't care if they've got a hundred guys as they say looking for him. Without tracking dogs, I'd say he has a reasonable chance of getting out of there. It's a huge park.

It's good they evacuated the park station there with the gift shop. Most people think of areas like that as safe havens and won't be prepared for him. I think there are cabins and lodges in the area as well, they will need to check on them. He might be holed up in one if the weather gets bad.

But they can't afford to hold the park perimeter for months. zif he makes it through the next two months, IDK what their chances are of getting it. I hope they get a move on because at this time, he has no reason to hold back. Could be that he has military survival skills, too.

that might be able to find him?

And tnere are a few, not really reliable people being inducted from what my friends based out of Fort Lewis tell me. This guy may have been discharged for mental problems, we just don't know.

I'll keep checking NWCN in the next few days and see what's up. They are a really good news source. What a terrible night, for Anderson's family, friends and the people out looking for this guy. I hope he's removed from the public soon...

Of course, all of this being said, that he is the one who did this, and that he's found to be guilty by a court of law.

Hopefully your conflation was unintentional. If not, you need to reassess your stereotypes.

It's a common joke by backwoodsmen I know in WA. People who are into fishing in remote areas, camping out, hiking, mountain climbing, extreme sports and doing survival exercises use the 'zombie apocalypse' as a theme.

Perhaps you want me to correct all of them for what you regard an insult. If you want to reassess your comment which seems negative to me and the people I know, fine. If not, fine. Peace out.

Unfortunately, I see it all too often here on D.U., so I'm probably a little over-sensative to it. Mea Culpa.

Plus, I was still getting coffee into me. So there.

but I could be wrong.

I'm glad he's gone.

unprotected exposure at 70 deg. F can kill a person, expecially if you get wet.

so that would do it, for sure.

Here's the LBN story, with a link to a picture. Apparently the guy was really into himself, and in great shape:


MOUNT RAINIER NATIONAL PARK, Wash. (AP) - Authorities say the body of an Iraq war veteran suspected in the slaying of a Mount Rainier National Park ranger was believed to have been found dead in the park Monday.

He apparently died after trudging into chest-deep snow while trying to elude snow-shoe wearing SWAT team members and other police who were on his trail.

Twenty-four-year-old Benjamin Colton Barnes reportedly fled to the remote park following an earlier shooting that wounded four near Seattle. Washington State Patrol spokesman Guy Gill says a body believed to be Barnes was found face down in the snow. The identity of the body has not been confirmed.

Almost all park visitors had been evacuated from the area following the Sunday slaying of Margaret Anderson. The park remained closed for a second day Monday.

More:
http://www.620ktar.com/509/1482627/Rainier-gunmans-body-might-have-been-found

So it's over, and all that training did no good against the elements. It's howling here today, pretty cold.

The best possible resolution, I think -- don't you?

Right now (8:23pm) it's really windy here in Kenmore. I'm surprised we still have power!

But taking Margaret Anderson's life too... He had a shattered mind and heart with the potential to be more.

His children will have to grow up with this. I've found there is forgiveness in things like this... But still.

I'll PM the rest of this, it's getting offtopic.

"The combined forces of the Washington State Patrol, U.S. Forest Service, a sheriff's SWAT team outfitted with snowshoes and the FBI combed the park both by heat-sensitive aircraft and on foot Monday as Barnes fled through creeks and waterways to avoid being tracked in the chest-deep snow, says Pierce County Sheriff's spokesman Ed Troyer."
http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20557914,00.html

If he got soaked, then into snow, the chill would go through his body pretty quickly. Without being able to dry out and get warm, that is lethal.

What with being below freezing and all. Even if he'd stayed out of streams, he left his survival gear in his car.