Posted on 04/04/2006 2:39:43 PM PDT by ahtnamas
OPINION
THE RECORD The Mahwah shooting
Tuesday, April 4, 2006 THE RECORD'S EDITORIAL STAFF
THE TRAGIC weekend altercation between state park police officers and Ramapough Mountain Indians demands a rigorous and thorough investigation by Bergen County Prosecutor John Molinelli. So far, the information about the shooting incident simply does not add up, and the prosecutor's silence on the case has only compounded the problem.
Although the incident in the Mahwah section of Ringwood State Park occurred on Saturday afternoon, only a tiny bit is known with any certainty.
During a confrontation between park police officers and an estimated two dozen Ramapoughs, Emil Mann, a 43-year-old Ramapough from Monroe, N.Y., was shot at least twice. His cousin, Otis Mann, 42, is being held in the Bergen County Jail on $100,000 bail on charges that include aggravated assault and possession of a weapon. Prosecutors say Otis Mann grabbed a police baton and tried to injure two park police officers, Lt. Kelly Gottheimer and Officer Kenneth Kriete.
But the prosecutor took more than 48 hours to release the name of a third officer, Chad Walder, who fired the weapon. Mr. Walder has been placed on administrative leave. What's more, Mr. Molinelli has given no indication that Emil Mann, who was in critical condition in Hackensack University Medical Center, was even involved in the fracas. Authorities have said that Mr. Mann was shot twice in the leg, but the Ramapoughs say he was shot twice in the chest and once in the groin.
So why did Mr. Walder fire at him?
Some Ramapoughs were reportedly riding all-terrain vehicles just before the incident. Although ATVs are illegal in state parks, that should not have precipitated a violent confrontation. How did the situation spiral out of control?
The Ramapoughs involved in the incident are part of an insular group of roughly 2,000 people who trace their roots to the Leni-Lenape Indians and who have lived in the area since long before the land was incorporated into the state park system. The group has long had a mistrust of authority. The Ramapoughs' account of the incident varies greatly from the official account.
It's Mr. Molinelli's job in the days and weeks ahead to separate fact from fiction, but he must disclose the basic facts of the case as soon as possible. To do otherwise only makes a bad situation worse by fostering a climate of wild speculation and -- for the Ramapoughs -- further distrust.
Monday, April 3, 2006
By BARBARA WILLIAMS and ELISE YOUNG STAFF WRITERS
More than 100 Ramapough Mountain Indians on Sunday demanded to know why a 43-year-old community member was shot by a police officer and his cousin arrested during a cookout in the Mahwah section of Ringwood State Park.
"We're asking them -- the Attorney General's Office, the governor and the Indian commission -- to do an investigation," tribal Chief Anthony Van Dunk said after a meeting at the Ramapoughs' community center.
"Did they use the proper protocol to use deadly force? They had no right to shoot us."
Emil Mann of Monroe, N.Y., was in critical condition at Hackensack University Medical Center on Sunday, a day after he was wounded in the company of about two dozen people.
A cousin, Otis Mann, 42, also of Monroe, was being held in the Bergen County Jail on $100,000 bail on charges including aggravated assault and possession of a weapon. Prosecutors said he had grabbed a police baton and tried to injure two New Jersey State Park Police officers.
Varying accounts began to circulate immediately after the shooting, which occurred about 4:15 p.m. Saturday at the top of a steep, rocky trail two miles into the woods, off Mountain Road. That road connects to Stag Hill Road, where many Ramapoughs live.
The victim's friends and family said it started with an argument that turned into a brawl between some picnickers and two park police officers, whom the Bergen County Prosecutor's Office identified as Lt. Kelly Gottheiner and Officer Kenneth Kriete. A third park police officer fired the bullets, according to the Ramapoughs.
A statement released by the Bergen County Prosecutor's Office said the investigation was "a difficult process so far, as many local residents and eyewitnesses have been reluctant to come forward and offer information."
The prosecutor, John Molinelli, did not respond to phone calls for comment.
"Our office is not releasing the name of the park police officer involved in the shooting," his statement said. "No further details will be forthcoming at this time."
The state Department of Environmental Protection, which oversees officers in state parks, referred all questions to the prosecutor. A DEP spokeswoman, Elaine Makatura, confirmed that rangers "are armed and have police powers."
The Ramapoughs, an insular population of approximately 2,000 which traces its ancestry to the Leni-Lenape, historically have had a cold relationship with outsiders, including law enforcement. They live in relative poverty in northern Bergen and Passaic counties and southern New York, and have a high incidence of underemployment and substance abuse.
Late last year, The Record's "Toxic Legacy" series chronicled their health problems, attributed to industrial paint sludge buried in the waning days of a Ford Motor Co. automobile plant.
On Sunday, some Ramapoughs suggested that the confrontation in the park was premeditated.
"I think this is harassment gone too far. They want us off this mountain and what better way than to scare us?" Anthony Van Dunk said.
Constance Jennings, whose house on Mountain Road is nearest the shooting scene, recalled that on Saturday morning, her husband and two of her four children were in the yard. Gottheiner came by and told him to take the children into the house " 'because something is going down today,' " Jennings said.
The Ramapoughs said about two dozen friends and family had gathered for the cookout. By late afternoon, some were getting ready to cook fish and hamburgers on a portable grill and others were riding all-terrain vehicles -- an activity prohibited on state land.
Ramapoughs who live nearby said the trouble began when Gottheiner and Kriete approached the cookout site. An argument began, they said, and Gottheiner slapped Otis Mann's 14-year-old daughter.
Otis Mann grabbed Gottheiner's baton and went after the officers, and Emil Mann tried to break them up, community members said. The third, unidentified park officer opened fire.
Community members said police officers from more than a dozen departments responded, but an ambulance did not arrive for 40 minutes. Community members credited Ryan Mann, an ATV rider, with carrying Emil Mann to a police vehicle for medical attention. They said Ryan Mann picked up the victim while the three rangers watched as he writhed on the ground, screaming for help.
Community members said Emil Mann was shot twice in the chest and once in the groin. He underwent surgery Saturday and had a second operation Sunday to remove one of the bullets, they said, but his heart stopped. He was revived and the surgery halted, community members said.
Hackensack University Medical Center representatives said only that Emil Mann was in critical condition.
On Sunday afternoon, the picnic spot was anything but bucolic. Three breaded fish fillets were scattered on the forest floor. Orange spray paint, left by law-enforcement officials, was splashed across the ground, trees and rocks.
At the community center on Stag Hill Road, Kathleen Mann, Otis Mann's wife, said she could not comment fully until she spoke to a lawyer. She said her husband should not have been arrested.
"He's a hardworking man who supports his four kids," she said. "He's had the same job for 20 years as a bus mechanic in Palisades Park."
Others were worried about the shooting victim.
"I just can't understand any of this," said Tommy Heaps. "Emil is the nicest guy. He'd give you the shirt off his back."
Senior Photographer Thomas E. Franklin contributed to this article. E-mail: williams@northjersey.com and younge@northjersey.com
Not a good situation at all. :-(
The Ramapo are likely NOT EVEN INDIANS! Much like the Melungeons and the Lumbee, they are more likely a mixture of escaped black slaves and early Dutch and English settlers who lived isolated in the Ramapo mountains.
When I was a kid growing up in Bergen County, I remember some tales of people with Dutch surnames who had been living up in the mountains and keeping to themselves for many decades, maybe even since colonial times. I'm pretty sure that these Ramapoughs were the same people that were referred to back then as the "Jackson Whites."
They are Lenape, the only reason they have not been recognized federally was because of Atlantic City casino's lobbying against them to make sure they didn't open a caino 35 minutes outside Manhattan.
During the Revolutionary War they were claiming they were Native Americans.
The Mann's have been using that picnic spot for at least 80 years. This officer better be charged or it's more than likely further violence will ensue.
NJ better find a way to shake off the environazis who's office is located at the base of stag hill, the NY/NJ trailwalkers, and designate atv locations within the state again. It's been a decade since atv use was banned, the building resentment is going to continue to boil over if the law doesn't reconcile with traditional use of the land.
Cohen convincingly proves they are largely the decendants of colonial-era free blacks and the earliest Dutch settlers of the Hackensack valley. Any native American blood in their ancestry is minimal.
It's a very interesting history, claims to casino revenues notwithstanding.
You are correct about the Dutch ancestry. I lived in Ringwood for several years and knew many 'Jackson Whites'. Last names preceded by 'van' were very common. They seemed to be especially common in the Hewitt section of West Milford.
"It's been a decade since atv use was banned, the building resentment is going to continue to boil over if the law doesn't reconcile with traditional use of the land."
How are ATV's considered traditional?
{How are ATV's considered traditional?}
How is a Vegas style casino considered traditional?
Where you once were able to drive in to hunt, you can not. Where you once were able to take a truck, you can not, where you once were able to drive a snowmobile, you can not, where you once were able to take an atv, you can not. Where you once were able to have 24/7 access to these parks, you can not, especially troubling to the astronomy crowd,(unless you are very politically connected). Where you once were able to enter all of the park, you can not. It is almost impossible to get a legal camping permit now if you aren't politically connected. They are now trying to restrict what areas mountain bikers can use.
Fees, Fines, parking, concessions, everything has gone up, maintanence levels are abysmal, yet the local population is under constant threat of getting hit with tickets with huge fines for doing activities that have been done on this land for over 150 years.
Almost all activities in this park has been severely curtailed because hiking and birdwatchers clubs have the only real lobbying groups in the state.
(Model T's were raced up and down these hills when model T's were newfangled, between runs to bring timber in to the mines furnaces. By the Mann's grandfathers.)
I once was strolling through the woods in a NJ park and discovered one of those rope courses-- a kind of jungle gym for semi-grownups. Some kid (about 22) came up and told me that I was trespassing. It was early afternoon.
Trespassing on public property. Figure that. Walking in the woods a crime.
Yup, that's them. I've been chased out of those mountains at gunpoint more times than I could count. I grew up about 5 miles away from Stag Hill and it was understood that you just didn't go up there...you might not come back down.
You are correct.
I bought my house from one of the co-authors of a book on the history of Mahwah. They are a mixture of a variety of backgrounds, including the local American Indians (natives).
Whatever the actual percentage of racial mixture, should they be shot down like dogs?
Yes they have been referred by people outside of their community by that name.
I disagree that the issue is an environmental one per se. The local authorities are taking bribes from wealthy, WHITE, developers to drive them off their land.
Hunting; off-road driving; snowmobiling; sky-watching; etc.
Do any of those activities require the use of deadly force against an un-armed person?
Its a racist myth.
I have heard those stories too; yet have been up on Stag Hill numerous times. Always found the people to be exceedingly courteous and respectful.
No. What the Parks police did here is disgusting.
how are you doing with your situation.
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