Published Saturday July 30. 2005
By LEE JUILLERAT
A man who was shot to death by a Crater Lake National Park ranger Wednesday night after threatening to kill two rangers has been identified as Ronn Merl Ward, 38, of Sunnyvale, Calif.
Park officials disclosed the name Friday afternoon after locating Ward's next of kin. He had been camping with his girlfriend. Park Service officials said she was not charged with a crime so her name will not be released.
Investigations into Ward's background are continuing. An autopsy and toxicology screen were performed Friday in Medford, but results are not expected for several days.
Park spokesman Mac Brock said the investigation into the shooting death is expected to continue for several more days. National Park Service rangers and special investigators are being assisted by agents from the Oregon State Police and FBI. The crime scene, a campsite in the Mazama Campground, remains closed, but the adjacent campsites are open for use.
The incident happened after 10 p.m. when two park law enforcement rangers responded to a reported domestic disturbance at the campground located near the park's south entrance.
Brock said rangers were confronted by Ward, who was brandishing a large wooden club about 2-feet long that some have described as similar to a shillelagh, a Celtic war club, a gnarled piece of wood two to three feet long that had been worked by hand and coated with a finish.
The rangers attempted to talk and calm Ward, but they said he became increasingly hostile and argumentative, and ignored orders to stop wandering around the campsite. He then approached the rangers, according to Park Service reports and an eyewitness, wielding his club and threatening to kill the rangers.
When Ward was within 10 feet, one ranger tried to subdue him with pepper spray, but Ward, unfazed, continuing advancing. The second ranger shot Ward twice with a semi-automatic pistol. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
The rangers have not been identified pending a required administrative review. Neither was injured. As required by Park Service policy, the rangers have been placed on restricted duty, which means they are not doing patrols.
Wednesday night's incident was the first major crime incident at the park since Aug. 29, 1982, when a motorist fleeing from a park ranger blew himself up with a hand grenade.
Andris Merzejaskis, 36, a native of Germany, detonated the grenade. Authorities were never completely sure whether he committed suicide or had intended to throw the grenade from his car so it would explode in the path of a vehicle driven by Alice Siebecher, the pursing park ranger. It was determined, however, that Merzejaskis' window was rolled up.
Investigators learned that Merzejaskis, also known as Andris Artus Merz, was wanted on by Texas authorities on several charges. The vehicle he was driving, which was destroyed, had been stolen from a California rental car agency. Several weapons were found inside his vehicle, including a .380-caliber automatic pistol, a bolt-action rifle and a 7.65 mm gun.
Siebecher began pursing Merzejaskis's vehicle after he was seen driving at a high rate of speed about 7 a.m. that morning. She was about 100 yards behind his car when it suddenly exploded and veered off the road.
"We don't know what happened," FBI investigator Larry Gorman said in an interview with Herald and News after the incident. "Whatever was in his head went with him ... We could speculate he committed suicide or was trying to get the ranger, however, we just don't know."
Crater Lake National Park authorities say it took less than two minutes for a California man’s encounter with park rangers to escalate from a domestic disturbance to a fatal shooting.
National Park Service authorities Friday identified the dead man as Ronn Merl Ward, 38, of Sunnyvale, a San Francisco Bay Area suburb.
Ward threatened the two rangers with a two-foot-long club that had a large knot at the end and ran through a cloud of pepper spray to within 10 feet of one ranger before he was shot dead by the other, authorities said.
"He was holding it above his head and charging toward the rangers telling them he was going to kill them," park spokesman William "Mac" Brock said Friday.
The rangers first encountered Ward at 10:08 p.m. at the trailer he was sharing with his unidentified girlfriend in the D Loop section of the Mazama Campground, Brock said.
The rangers radioed into their dispatcher at 10:10 p.m. that Ward was shot, Brock said.
"His agitation and hostility escalated very, very quickly," Brock said.
An autopsy was scheduled for late Friday at the morgue within the Oregon State Police facilities in Central Point. The results were not available Friday.
Brock declined to say whether drugs or alcohol were believed to be involved in the case, but a toxicology screen was scheduled to be part of the autopsy.
"Right now, that’s all subject to more investigation," Brock said.
Park officials Friday continued to decline to reveal the identities of the rangers, who were placed on "restrictive duty" status and were assisting in the investigation, Brock said.
National Park Service special agents and the Oregon State Police were conducting a criminal investigation. Brock said another park service special agent was conducting an administrative investigation to determine whether the use of fatal force was justifiable under park service protocols.
While officials confirmed that the ranger fired twice, Brock declined to reveal where or how many times Ward was hit.
Brock said the club was a heavy "imposing type of club" that was purchased, possibly locally.
Ward’s girlfriend was not charged with a crime and was released, Brock said.
Ward has no criminal record in Oregon, and California records were not available here Friday.
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