|
Ranger shoots, kills man at Crater Lake
Friday, July 29, 2005 12:14 AM PDT
 |
 |
| Investigators collect evidence at a campsite in Crater Lake National Park, where a park ranger shot and killed a camper who had become agitated. A white outline, visible in the foreground, indicates where the man's body fell. |
|
| |
Published Friday July 29, 2005
By LEE JUILLERAT CRATER LAKE - An armed ranger at Crater Lake National Park shot and killed a camper who had become agitated and made death threats late Wednesday night.
Reports by park spokesmen and an eyewitness indicate the man ignored efforts by two law enforcement rangers to get him to stop making threats while walking around the Mazama Campground about 10 p.m. The rangers drove to the campground in response to a domestic dispute that interrupted a campfire program - ironically titled "The Beauty of Crater Lake" - at the nearby amphitheater.
Park spokesmen and witnesses said the camper was brandishing a large club when he threatened to kill the rangers. One ranger used pepper spray when the man came within 10 feet of the rangers.
When he continued to charge, the second ranger fired two shots. The man was declared dead on the road near his Loop D-19 campsite.
The name of the man was withheld pending notification of his next of kin. The names of the rangers involved are not being released by the National Park Service. Neither ranger was injured.
Tim Hughes, a resident of San Dimas, Calif., was camped with his wife and four children in a campsite beside the man. He described the man as "big, strapping, tattooed, shirtless, a little bit odd - not the family type."
"This guy, he just went over the edge," Hughes said Thursday afternoon while preparing to move his family to another campsite. At the urging of another person attending the campfire program, ranger Mike Cook listened to the commotion then called for law enforcement rangers.
Hughes said it sounded as though things had calmed down for a while, until he walked past the trailer where the man was camped.
"I could hear him (the victim) launching F-words. I thought, 'Of all the campsites, why does he have to be next to us?' " Hughes gathered his family inside their popout camper while he remained outside and waited for rangers to arrive.
"They tried to get the guy to cooperate, but he didn't want to have nothing to do with it. I said, 'Do you want to go to jail?' He said, 'Do you want to die?' I knew something was really wrong."
The woman inside the trailer came out screaming, Hughes said.
''She went running up to the guy and said, 'You've ... killed him,'' Hughes said. ''She was hugging the guy." After the incident, Hughes and his family left the park and stayed overnight at the Wilson Cottages near Fort Klamath. The Hughes are on a camping vacation that started Sunday in Ukiah, Calif. They spent two nights at Del Norte Redwoods State Park near Eureka, Calif., before arriving at Crater Lake Wednesday afternoon.
"Last night was very unsettling. It was difficult sleeping," Hughes said. "That's why we need to leave this site."
|
|
| |
"Other than the fact that there was a lot of screaming and shouting, we really didn't know what was going on," said Lee Schiefelbein of Fort Lewis, Wash., who was camping with her husband Mike and their son and daughter.
Like the Hughes family, the Schiefelbein family attended Cook's campfire program. After the shooting, most other campers were allowed to return their sites. The Schiefelbeins, who were in another campsite next to the victim, were kept away from the scene by Cook and eventually taken to the Mazama Village store. They were allowed to return to their campsite about 3 a.m. Thursday.
"We're going to try to carry on," Lee Schiefelbein said Thursday afternoon before the family headed out for sightseeing. The family is on a 10-day camping trip.
"It's just peaceful here. It's ironic, what happened last night," Mike Schiefelbein said. "It's not the park's fault."
Park spokesmen Mack Brock said 152 of Mazama's campsites, with 424 people, were occupied. Loop D is near the amphitheater and the Annie Creek Canyon trail, and has several sites that overlook the canyon.
Brock said park officials and staff from Xanterra, the park concessionaire, made arrangements to house campers immediately adjacent to the shooting scene.
During a Thursday morning staff meeting, Brock said park Superintendent Chuck Lundy assured staff that the two rangers were not injured.
"You know the Park Service. We're a tight-knit group," Brock said, adding the rangers were doing "as well as could be expected."
"These guys have to be ready for these kind of things. They're trained just like any other police officers, but they're not city police officers."
An autopsy will be done. Along with trying to wrap up the investigation, which is being done by special agents and rangers with the National Park Service along with Oregon State Police, Brock said efforts were aimed at returning the park to its usual summer calm.
"This is a tragic event and we have to be supportive of our staff and our visitors and still go and manage the park," Brock said.
|