Tragedy in the mountains: park ranger killed in Washington

[MillCreek]

Ground teams have just reached the body.  No wounds were found and the suspect's body was found half-buried in the snow dressed in a t-shirt and jeans.  It was exposure that killed him.

[cassandra and sara's daddy]

too bad  thats too easy

[Jamie B]

too bad  thats too easy

Yea, but it still makes you smile just a little bit......

[MillCreek]

From the Seattle Times: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2017146937_ranger03m.html

Barnes had served in Iraq and was discharged from Ft. Lewis, according to Army spokesman Col. James Hutton. The mother of his child, in court child-custody documents filed in July, said she fears he suffered from PTSD and that he was angry, violent, suicidal and heavily armed.

Barnes was an Army private first class whose military service ended in the fall of 2009. He received a misconduct discharge at Fort Lewis (now Joint Base Lewis-McChord) after he was charged with driving under the influence of alcohol and improper transport of a privately owned weapon.

By then, he had served two years and seven months of active duty, according to Maj. Chris Ophardt, a spokesman for Joint Base Lewis-McChord.

So not a stellar military career, either.  I noticed that one of his chest tattoos said 'Odin', so I wonder if he was into the white power scene. 

[MicroBalrog]

No, the ATF can ban import of them by decree, then the only value is to people that already have guns here.

No, they can't.

Congress has explicitly banned them from doing so.

[gunsmith]

CBS news called him a "survivalist" .

In 1972 I survived winter camping with the boy scouts better then this so called survivalist.
What a freaking jerk.

That being said, the park rangers need long guns and better training, though I would never want to be on the receiving end of a Saiga 12 gauge-I would think you need a modern military rifle to fight that off.

What is the range of a slug/buckshot out of a Saiga 12 gauge?

I'm imagining he got within 20 yrds and all she had was a pistol - she missed he didn't.

So he got good training for fighting but very little in survival.

[Perd Hapley]

I should think his mindset and mental health are the first weaknesses to look to here, long before we judge his survival skills or SERE training. Without the PTSD and marital issues, he might have survived just fine.

'Course, without the PTSD and marital issues, he may not have been the subject of a manhunt.

[Hawkmoon]

That being said, the park rangers need long guns and better training, though I would never want to be on the receiving end of a Saiga 12 gauge-I would think you need a modern military rifle to fight that off.

Better training is a major part of it, but some of that would have to include a basic reality check, even before all the tacticool stuff comes into play. I have a friend who is a police officer in Washington and a firearms trainer at the state academy. The park is not in his area (quite), but he has been in contact with the sheriff's office where all this went down. He said the ranger didn't expect any major issues. She didn't fully block the road when she set up her roadblock. The perp drove around her, turned around, and came out of his vehicle shooting. She was still sitting in the driver's seat and her sidearm never came out of the holster.

What's even worse (and must be VERY hard on her colleagues) is that she didn't die instantly. She was alive and talking to the SWAT team after she was shot, but the perp laid down enough covering fire that the rescue team couldn't get to her before she bled out and died. Too bad they couldn't have called in the Air Force for some close air support.

Basically, she was blindsided. There's so little serious crime in the national parks (especially off-season) that I'm sure she had no expectation she was confronting anything other than a park visitor who was too impatient to stop at the tire chain checkpoint.

Two years and seven months active duty and he was still a PFC, eh? Sheesh, I made PFC out of AIT -- which means after four months. I was only on active duty for two years and I made E5 in a year and a half. I knew one guy who made E6 (Sergeant, not Specialist) in a year and half.

[MillCreek]

The Tacoma News Tribune reports that his MOS was in communications and that he had no special survival training while in the Army.

[MicroBalrog]

So he got good training for fighting but very little in survival.

No amount of training will help someone if they're a total moron. I have seen a fellow at a security company who was sent to an expensive  course in EOD.

Sending an unarmed security guard to train in EOD on the company dime? Dumb.

Sending an unarmed security guard who almost immediately forgot everything he learned to train in EOD on the company dime? A magnificient ball of dumb.

[MicroBalrog]

The Tacoma News Tribune reports that his MOS was in communications and that he had no special survival training while in the Army.

Don't most of us learn "don't go out in December snow in a t-shirt" at the ripe age of seven?

[Jim147]

Don't most of us learn "don't go out in December snow in a t-shirt" at the ripe age of seven?

Well my daughter learned a little earlier then seven.

My wife had DVRed the news and was watching it when I came in earlier tonight. i was surprised when I heard a guy say, "He just shot her with a high powered rifle."

Surprised twice. One I had already heard about the shotgun and two he didn't call it an assault weapon.

jim

[gunsmith]

The Tacoma News Tribune reports that his MOS was in communications and that he had no special survival training while in the Army.

Signal??

I betcha he simply had mental problems and his so called ptsd was already there before he ever joined the army.

[KD5NRH]

What's even worse (and must be VERY hard on her colleagues) is that she didn't die instantly. She was alive and talking to the SWAT team after she was shot, but the perp laid down enough covering fire that the rescue team couldn't get to her before she bled out and died. Too bad they couldn't have called in the Air Force for some close air support.

Not to go too far on the tacticool stuff, but I do have to wonder if a couple of smoke grenades accessible from the front seat of the car could have helped here.  At least by making it harder for him to shoot at her again, and possibly by covering a SWAT medic's approach.  An M79 (or M203 mounted to a patrol rifle) and a bandolier of tear gas grenades for it is more than I'd want to see the typical patrol officer carrying, (OTOH, park rangers and other rural LE where backup can take an hour or more aren't typical patrol officers) but not at all unreasonable for SWAT to have available to make their approach easier.

[AJ Dual]

If she was shot through the windshield of her park vehicle, and doing a snow-chain warning/check, and not a criminal/fugitive roadblock, I doubt any gear or training would have saved her.

(Shrug)

Maybe it's just the photo, but how a MAC-clone and the Saiga compare in size to him... besides any other issues, I wonder if a lifelong struggle with Napoleon-syndrome played a role.

[Boomhauer]

She was alive and talking to the SWAT team after she was shot,

Wait, they had a whole SWAT team who couldn't figure out suppressing fire?

Also, this highlightes the importance of every officer carrying a good trauma kit.

[AJ Dual]

Wait, they had a whole SWAT team who couldn't figure out suppressing fire?

Also, this highlightes the importance of every officer carrying a good trauma kit.

Well, I can see a scenario where they see/hear shots, and impacts in and around their AO, but don't know where they're coming from to lay down that suppression fire effectively. Seems to me this was a road, in the snow and woods, in mountainous foothill country. It seems to me the shooter had the triple advantage of initiative, cover/concealment, and the high ground.

I'm sure someone who's actually "been there/done that" can clarify, but I'd think that only crew served, or at least belt-fed weaponry really has the legs to suppress anything/anyone long enough to pull someone out of a car in a situation like that. And that's assuming you know where to aim.

[MillCreek]

Wait, they had a whole SWAT team who couldn't figure out suppressing fire?

Also, this highlightes the importance of every officer carrying a good trauma kit.

It was the Pierce County SWAT team that responded, and they are based a good 70 miles away from the scene.  There was initial backup by the Park rangers, then the Pierce County Sheriff and Washington State Patrol responded, and then SWAT, but Longmire and then halfway up the road to Paradise is a long ways from anywhere on very rural/mountain roads.   I think she may already have been dead or close to it by the time SWAT was able to get there.  Not so easy to do officer backup when the heavy artillery is so far away.  

[Hawkmoon]

Not so easy to do officer backup when the heavy artillery is so far away.  

As was discovered not so long ago in Norway ...

[MicroBalrog]

I'm sure someone who's actually "been there/done that" can clarify, but I'd think that only crew served, or at least belt-fed weaponry really has the legs to suppress anything/anyone long enough to pull someone out of a car in a situation like that. And that's assuming you know where to aim.

See why police need PKMs?

[Jamisjockey]

Well, I can see a scenario where they see/hear shots, and impacts in and around their AO, but don't know where they're coming from to lay down that suppression fire effectively. Seems to me this was a road, in the snow and woods, in mountainous foothill country. It seems to me the shooter had the triple advantage of initiative, cover/concealment, and the high ground.

I'm sure someone who's actually "been there/done that" can clarify, but I'd think that only crew served, or at least belt-fed weaponry really has the legs to suppress anything/anyone long enough to pull someone out of a car in a situation like that. And that's assuming you know where to aim.

A couple trained riflemen with semi-automatic magazine fed rifles (AR15's) and 4-6 magazines each could suppress 1-2 gunmen quite easily if they know where to fire.  I'm not real keen on the idea of LEO's being in the business of providing suppressive fire in all but the most dire situations. Without really knowing where the gunmen is (like just generally concealed on a hillside in the woods), you'd need several belt feds and probably some light arty, too (mortar, M203's). 

I'd think that smoke and or tear gas would have the best multi-role benefit to a police department and could be used to effect to impede the fire of a gunman.  Having easy access to armored vehicles would also facilitate an extraction.

You just can't train or prepare for every situation.

[SADShooter]

To a finer point: "Not every scenario is survivable." We do our best, and sometimes the dice roll the other way.

[Matthew Carberry]

Any idea of the significance of the finger symbol tattoo?  L-something?

[gunsmith]

Any idea of the significance of the finger symbol tattoo?  L-something?

Loser maybe?

[MillCreek]

The autopsy said that Mr. Barnes died of drowning and secondary hypothermia.  The theory is that he became unconscious due to exposure and landed head-first in a stream.  He was found on the streambank with his upper body in the water.

Also being reported this morning is a clever idea by the helicopter search teams.  As the choppers found parties in the backcountry, they would give instructions via loudspeaker.  But many people could not hear/understand the loudspeaker over the helicopter noise.  So the crews were writing messages on the sides of paper coffee cups and then dropping the cups down on the campers below.