SEATTLE, Washington (Isabelle Zehnder reporting) – A troubled veteran of the Iraq war, suspected of shooting a park ranger was found dead near a steep, snowy slope not far from Mt. Rainier.
The discovery of Benjamin Colton Barnes, 24, ended the intense 24-hour manhunt that left tourists locked down in fear at a visitor’s center while 200 law enforcement officers combed the wilderness with search dogs and planes.
“They believe it was one person, and that one person has been found dead. So far as that goes, it’s over,” Mt. Rainer National Park spokesman Lee Snook said.
The dramatic standoff took place during the height of the region’s busy holiday ski season. It concluded when authorities confirmed Barnes, whose abandoned car was found near the scene of Sunday’s fatal shooting of park ranger Margaret Anderson, had been found near Narada Falls, not far from where the original shots were fired.
Authorities believe the former Army private may have headed for the wilderness to evade capture after a shootout at a New Year’s Eve party several hours earlier that left four people injured.
Pierce County Sheriff’s Department spokesman Ed Troyer said Barnes was wearing only jeans, a T-shirt, and one shoe, and probably died of exposure.
Park guests were evacuated or put on lockdown while more than 100 tourists at the park’s Paradise visitor’s center were led inside and ordered to kneel with their hands behind their heads to confirm the gunman was not among them before they were sequestered in the center until the early hours of Monday morning.
The guests were evacuated hours before Barnes’s body was discovered by an aircraft equipped with thermal detection equipment.
Anderson, a 34-year-old mother of two, was on patrol when she was called to establish a roadblock to stop a man who had blown through a safety checkpoint. She placed her vehicle across a road about a mile below the visitor’s center, and was joined by another park ranger, Dan Camiccia.
Authorities say a man, who they’re sure was Barnes, approached the roadblock, made a U-turn, and fired shots at both vehicles. Anderson was fatally wounded and Camiccia was able to escape, though his vehicle was shot through the windshield.
"He put his vehicle in reverse and backed out of there," park spokesman Kevin Bacher said. As for Anderson, he said, "She was shot in her vehicle before she even had a chance to get out."
Barnes then left his vehicle and fled into the forest, Bacher said. Other rangers and a Pierce County Sheriff’s Department special weapons and tactics soon arrived to assist, but were prevented from approaching Anderson’s vehicle. Bacher said it took about 90 minutes before they could secure the situation enough to get Anderson out. The shooter, he said, was still up there firing on the people who were trying to get her help.
"The FBI and the law enforcement community want Ranger Anderson's family to know we honor her for making the ultimate sacrifice in her effort to enable the public to enjoy the beauty of Mt. Rainier and the environment she was sworn to protect," Laura Laughlin, head of the FBI's Seattle office, said in a statement.
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