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Violence shatters Crater Lake calm
A park ranger fatally shoots a man who had threatened to kill officers after disrupting a campground
Friday, July 29, 2005
LARRY BINGHAM
and MATTHEW PREUSCH
A ranger at Crater Lake National Park shot and killed an unruly camper late Wednesday during a rare episode of violence at one of the nation's most treasured natural sites. The shooting, which followed a domestic dispute, happened at a nearly full campground during the park's busiest time of year.
The man waved a club and threatened to kill rangers after they were called to his camper following an argument with a woman that could be heard throughout the campground. Park officials declined Thursday to name the man, saying they had not yet notified his family. He died at the scene.
"This is a very unusual event," said Michael Justin, assistant public information officer for Oregon's only national park. "It goes without saying, obviously, you have folks come to the park with these issues, but generally speaking, our visitors come with a pleasant state of mind. They come for rest and relaxation and to enjoy the beauty of nature."
Park officials said they would not identify the rangers during the investigation. Rangers trained to investigate such incidents were en route to the park from Olympic and Yosemite national parks and will work closely with the Oregon State Police.
The shooting happened after 10 p.m. in Loop D of the Mazama campground, where 30 of the area's 35 campsites were occupied. The park has more than 220 campsites near the western entrance, and most are full during the summer tourist season.
Park officials released few specifics about the shooting, but a family of six in the adjacent camping site said the argument between the man and woman escalated during the evening until the man's screams could be heard during a presentation at a nearby amphitheater. The screams were so disruptive that a camper asked a ranger to look into the disturbance.
Park visitors attending the presentation, on the natural history of the lake, sang a campfire song that included shouting. The man began shouting back, according to neighboring camper Michelle Hughes of San Dimas, Calif. At one point, she said, the man screamed, "I am God!"
Campers Denise and Brent Baldwin of Portland said they heard the man's screams but thought they were part of the amphitheater program.
Rangers try to quiet man
When the Hughes family returned to their campsite, two rangers were outside the man's trailer, trying to persuade him to calm down. According to Michelle Hughes, the rangers asked the man inside the trailer, "Do you want to go to jail?"
Hughes said the man replied, "Do you want to die?"
The man came out of the trailer waving a club. "I could see him moving with it held high like he was going to attack, and when that happened he was shot," she said.
Justin, the park spokesman, confirmed that the two rangers tried to calm the man, but "he became increasingly hostile and very argumentative." He said the man threatened to kill the rangers.
"As a consequence of that, there was a need by the officers to subdue the individual because of his erratic behavior and the brandishing of this club," Justin said. When the man came within 10 feet of the rangers, one shot him with pepper spray. But the man continued forward, and the second ranger fired his gun twice. An emergency medical team reported the man dead at the scene.
After the shooting, Hughes and her husband packed up their four children, ages 4 to 16, and drove to a hotel to spend the night. They returned to their campsite Thursday and found yellow police tape roped around the man's Jeep Cherokee and camping trailer.
California couple bought trailer
The man's trailer was being searched Thursday. It was traced by The Oregonian to a Klamath Falls couple, who said they sold it two weeks ago to a young, unmarried California couple from the San Francisco Bay Area. The sellers, who asked not to be identified, said the couple paid in cash and had planned to travel and make and sell crafts.
Park spokesman Mac Brock said the shooting was the first he had heard of in 12 years at Crater Lake. Specific information on the history of shootings in the park was not immediately available.
"It's very rare that our law enforcement rangers or park police officers find themselves in a situation where they are being assaulted and where they have to find some measure of response to protect themselves, or other employees, or visitors." said Al Nash, spokesman for the Park Service headquartered in Washington, D.C.
Before the Crater Lake shooting, the most recent fatal shooting by a ranger in a national park occurred Jan. 18, 2003, when Ranger Derek Anderson shot and killed Paul Anthony Nelms, 28, in Chesapeake & Ohio Canal National Historical Park in the Washington, D.C., area. Anderson found Nelms, a suspect in a carjacking, at a boat ramp without a coat in freezing weather and approached him. They ended up in a struggle, and Anderson shot Nelms six times.
National Park Service policy allows rangers and police to use deadly force only when faced with "imminent danger of death or serious physical injury to the ranger or to another person."
It's more dangerous to be a law enforcement officer for the Park Service than for the Federal Bureau of Investigation or Drug Enforcement Administration, federal statistics show. In 2003, the most recent year covered in FBI reports on attacks on law officers, 106 officers working for the Park Service were assaulted, compared with 24 each in the FBI and DEA.
More than half the assaults on park rangers do not involve guns. Not all rangers work in positions where they are permitted to bear arms, but rangers whose jobs involve weapons undergo several weeks of academy-style training.
"We have about 277 million visitors a year," Nash said, "so the fact that we have been averaging about 100 assaults a year on law enforcement personnel shows how really rare that type of thing is."
A park ranger fatally shoots a man who had threatened to kill officers after disrupting a campground
Friday, July 29, 2005
LARRY BINGHAM
and MATTHEW PREUSCH
A ranger at Crater Lake National Park shot and killed an unruly camper late Wednesday during a rare episode of violence at one of the nation's most treasured natural sites. The shooting, which followed a domestic dispute, happened at a nearly full campground during the park's busiest time of year.
The man waved a club and threatened to kill rangers after they were called to his camper following an argument with a woman that could be heard throughout the campground. Park officials declined Thursday to name the man, saying they had not yet notified his family. He died at the scene.
"This is a very unusual event," said Michael Justin, assistant public information officer for Oregon's only national park. "It goes without saying, obviously, you have folks come to the park with these issues, but generally speaking, our visitors come with a pleasant state of mind. They come for rest and relaxation and to enjoy the beauty of nature."
Park officials said they would not identify the rangers during the investigation. Rangers trained to investigate such incidents were en route to the park from Olympic and Yosemite national parks and will work closely with the Oregon State Police.
The shooting happened after 10 p.m. in Loop D of the Mazama campground, where 30 of the area's 35 campsites were occupied. The park has more than 220 campsites near the western entrance, and most are full during the summer tourist season.
Park officials released few specifics about the shooting, but a family of six in the adjacent camping site said the argument between the man and woman escalated during the evening until the man's screams could be heard during a presentation at a nearby amphitheater. The screams were so disruptive that a camper asked a ranger to look into the disturbance.
Park visitors attending the presentation, on the natural history of the lake, sang a campfire song that included shouting. The man began shouting back, according to neighboring camper Michelle Hughes of San Dimas, Calif. At one point, she said, the man screamed, "I am God!"
Campers Denise and Brent Baldwin of Portland said they heard the man's screams but thought they were part of the amphitheater program.
Rangers try to quiet man
When the Hughes family returned to their campsite, two rangers were outside the man's trailer, trying to persuade him to calm down. According to Michelle Hughes, the rangers asked the man inside the trailer, "Do you want to go to jail?"
Hughes said the man replied, "Do you want to die?"
The man came out of the trailer waving a club. "I could see him moving with it held high like he was going to attack, and when that happened he was shot," she said.
Justin, the park spokesman, confirmed that the two rangers tried to calm the man, but "he became increasingly hostile and very argumentative." He said the man threatened to kill the rangers.
"As a consequence of that, there was a need by the officers to subdue the individual because of his erratic behavior and the brandishing of this club," Justin said. When the man came within 10 feet of the rangers, one shot him with pepper spray. But the man continued forward, and the second ranger fired his gun twice. An emergency medical team reported the man dead at the scene.
After the shooting, Hughes and her husband packed up their four children, ages 4 to 16, and drove to a hotel to spend the night. They returned to their campsite Thursday and found yellow police tape roped around the man's Jeep Cherokee and camping trailer.
California couple bought trailer
The man's trailer was being searched Thursday. It was traced by The Oregonian to a Klamath Falls couple, who said they sold it two weeks ago to a young, unmarried California couple from the San Francisco Bay Area. The sellers, who asked not to be identified, said the couple paid in cash and had planned to travel and make and sell crafts.
Park spokesman Mac Brock said the shooting was the first he had heard of in 12 years at Crater Lake. Specific information on the history of shootings in the park was not immediately available.
"It's very rare that our law enforcement rangers or park police officers find themselves in a situation where they are being assaulted and where they have to find some measure of response to protect themselves, or other employees, or visitors." said Al Nash, spokesman for the Park Service headquartered in Washington, D.C.
Before the Crater Lake shooting, the most recent fatal shooting by a ranger in a national park occurred Jan. 18, 2003, when Ranger Derek Anderson shot and killed Paul Anthony Nelms, 28, in Chesapeake & Ohio Canal National Historical Park in the Washington, D.C., area. Anderson found Nelms, a suspect in a carjacking, at a boat ramp without a coat in freezing weather and approached him. They ended up in a struggle, and Anderson shot Nelms six times.
National Park Service policy allows rangers and police to use deadly force only when faced with "imminent danger of death or serious physical injury to the ranger or to another person."
It's more dangerous to be a law enforcement officer for the Park Service than for the Federal Bureau of Investigation or Drug Enforcement Administration, federal statistics show. In 2003, the most recent year covered in FBI reports on attacks on law officers, 106 officers working for the Park Service were assaulted, compared with 24 each in the FBI and DEA.
More than half the assaults on park rangers do not involve guns. Not all rangers work in positions where they are permitted to bear arms, but rangers whose jobs involve weapons undergo several weeks of academy-style training.
"We have about 277 million visitors a year," Nash said, "so the fact that we have been averaging about 100 assaults a year on law enforcement personnel shows how really rare that type of thing is."
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