Margaret Anderson, Mt. Rainier park ranger fatally shot/Police say body is 24 yr old Benjamin Colton Barnes. He suffered PTSD from Iraq, opened fire at a party, hid in the woods & shot/killed Anderson NY Eve.

By Associated Press, Updated: Monday, January 2, 2:31 PM

MOUNT RAINIER NATIONAL PARK, Wash. — A plane searching the slopes of Mount Rainier National Park for an Iraq War veteran suspected in the slaying of a park ranger found a body believed to be his lying face down in chest-deep snow Monday, authorities said.

It could be several hours before authorities reach the body. While they haven’t identified the body, they believe it is that of 24-year-old Benjamin Colton Barnes.

( The News Tribune, Dean J. Koepfler / Associated Press ) A Mount Rainier National Park ranger was fatally shot following a New Year’s Day traffic stop and authorities believed the gunman was still in the woods with an assault rifle.

“Obviously the strong probability is that it is” the gunman, Pierce County Sheriff’s spokesman Ed Troyer said.

Barnes is believed to have fled to the remote park to hide after an earlier shooting at a New Year’s house party near Seattle that wounded four, two critically. Authorities suspect he shot ranger Margaret Anderson later Sunday.

Police cleared out the park of visitors and mounted a manhunt for Barnes, who was believed to have weapons and survivalist training. The body was found face down, Washington State Patrol spokesman Guy Gill said.

Barnes has had a troubled transition to civilian life, with accusations he suffers post-traumatic stress disorder and is suicidal.

He was involved in a custody dispute in July, during which his toddler daughter’s mother sought a temporary restraining order against him, according to court documents. The woman told authorities he was suicidal and possibly suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder after deploying to Iraq in 2007-2008, and had once sent her a text message saying “I want to die.”

She alleged that he gets easily irritated, angry and depressed and keeps an arsenal of weapons in his home. She wrote that she feared for the child’s safety. Undated photos provided by police showed a shirtless, tattooed Barnes brandishing two large weapons.

In November 2011, a guardian ad litem recommended parenting and communication classes for both parents and recommending Barnes be allowed to continue supervised visits with the child, two days a week. That visitation schedule was to continue until he completed a domestic violence evaluation and mental health evaluation and complied with all treatment recommendations.

On New Year’s, there was an argument at a house party in Skyway, south of Seattle, and gunfire erupted, police said. Barnes was connected to the shooting, said Sgt. Cindi West, King County Sheriff’s spokeswoman.

Two of the three people who fled the scene were located. West said authorities were trying to find Barnes and had been in contact with his family to ask them to convince him to step forward and “tell his side of the story.”

At Mount Rainier around 10:20 a.m. Sunday, the gunman had sped past a checkpoint to make sure vehicles have tire chains, which are sometimes necessary in snowy conditions, Bacher said.

One ranger began following him while Anderson, a 34-year-old mother of two young children who was married to another Mount Rainier park ranger, eventually blocked the road to stop the driver. Before fleeing, the gunman fired shots at both Anderson and the ranger that trailed him, but only Anderson was hit.

Anderson would have been armed, as she was one of the rangers tasked with law enforcement, parks spokesman Kevin Bacher said. Troyer said she was shot before she had even got out of the vehicle.

Park superintendent Randy King said Anderson had served as a park ranger for about four years. King said Anderson’s husband also was working as a ranger elsewhere in the park at the time of the shooting.

“It’s just a huge tragedy — for the family, the park and the park service,” he said.

Adam Norton, a neighbor of Anderson’s in the small town of Eatonville, said the ranger’s family moved in about a year ago. He said they were not around much, but when they were, Norton would see Anderson outside with her girls.

“They just seemed like the perfect family,” he said.

The shooting renewed debate about a federal law that made it legal for people to take loaded weapons into Mount Rainier. The 2010 law made possession of firearms in national parks subject to state gun laws.

Bill Wade, the outgoing chair of the Coalition of National Park Service Retirees, said Congress should be regretting its decision to allow loaded weapons in national parks.

He called Sunday’s fatal shooting a tragedy that could have been prevented. He hopes Congress will reconsider the law that took effect in early 2010, but doubts that will happen in today’s political climate.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/ranger-shot-to-death-at-mount-rainier-authorities-search-park-for-gunman/2012/01/02/gIQA2XTjVP_story.html?hpid=z4

Gunman suspected of killing Mount Rainier ranger Margaret Anderson may be dead

Washington state police believe dead body found in snow is suspect Benjamin Colton Barnes
BY MICHAEL SHERIDAN
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Originally Published: Monday, January 2 2012, 9:32 AM
Updated: Monday, January 2 2012, 2:48 PM

Pierce County Sheriff's Dept/AP
Alleged gunman Benjamin Colton Barnes.

Mount Rainier National Park/AP
Slain park ranger Margaret Anderson, 34, a mother of two.

Ed Troyer/Pierce Co. Sheriff's Dept.

Washington state police believe they’ve found the dead body of a Iraq war vet suspected of gunning down a female park ranger on New Year's Day.

“A body of a white male has been located face down in the snow with no heat signature. ID has not been confirmed yet,” a Washington state police spokesman said on Twitter.

“The body found is believed to be that of homicide suspect Benjamin C. Barnes. Again that has not been confirmed.”

The 24-year-old apparently died after trudging into chest-deep snow while trying to run from SWAT team members and other police, according to the Associated Press.

Authorities had locked down the snow-covered Mount Rainier National Park, a 368-square-mile area south of Seattle, as they hunted for the suspected gunman.

The Iraq War veteran was believed to be armed and wearing body armor, according to CNN.

The park had been evacuated, and at least 125 people have been kept at the visitors center.

Local police and the FBI were using aircraft equipped with heat-sensing scanners to fly over the wilderness, KOMO 4 News reported, while searchers on the ground wore crampons and snowshoes to scour the snow for signs of the suspect.

Barnes is also suspected in a shooting incident in the Seattle community of Skyway, which left four people wounded, police said.

An argument during a party, at which several people were armed, led to a shootout at around 3 a.m., KOMO 4 News reported Sunday.

At least three people fled the scene, one of which was identified as Barnes, polices said.

Several hours later, a ranger attempted to stop a vehicle believed to be driven by Barnes during what authorities described as a "normal traffic stop."

When the suspect refused to pull over, the ranger called for assistance. Park ranger Margaret Anderson, a 34-year-old mother of two, responded and set up a roadblock.

The gunman stopped his car, got out, and shot her, authorities said. Anderson managed to call for help, but the suspect fired off shots keeping sheriff deputies away. When they were finally able to get to her, some 90 minutes later, she was dead.

Mount Rainier National Park spokeswoman Lee Taylor described Anderson as "a person with a quick smile, a very gentle person, a very competent ranger," according to CNN. "This gunman took the life of somebody who had a great deal to live for and was making great contributions to society by being a national park ranger."

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/authorities-hunt-gunman-suspected-killing-mount-rainier-ranger-margaret-anderson-article-1.999759#ixzz1iL7QCoGe

Park Ranger
Margaret Anderson
United States Department of the Interior - National Park Service, U.S. Government

End of Watch: Sunday, January 1, 2012
Bio & Incident Details
Age: 34

Tour: 4 years

Badge # Not available

Cause: Gunfire

Location: Washington

Incident Date: 1/1/2012

Weapon: Rifle

Suspect: Deceased

Park Ranger Margaret Anderson was shot and killed while attempting to stop a fleeing suspect near the Longmire Ranger Station in Mount Rainier National Park, in Pierce County, Washington, at approximately 10:30 am.

Another park ranger had attempted to stop the suspect at a snow-chain checkpoint near the Paradise Ranger Station, but the suspect fled before being intercepted by Ranger Anderson, who had set up a roadblock. Unbeknownst to Ranger Anderson, the suspect was wanted in connection to a shooting the previous day where four people were injured.

When the suspect reached Ranger Anderson's roadblock, he made U-turn, exited his vehicle, and opened fire. Ranger Anderson was struck before she was able to exit her patrol car.

After being shot, Ranger Anderson radioed for help as the suspect fled on foot. Responding units attempting to reach Ranger Anderson were held at bay for approximately 90 minutes as the suspect continued to fire on them. The suspect's vehicle was recovered with additional weapons and body armor inside.

The suspect's body was believed to be found the following day about six miles from the initial shooting scene.

Ranger Anderson had served with the National Park Service for four years. She is survived by her husband and two young children. Her husband also serves as a park ranger in the park and was on duty at the time.

Please contact the following agency to send condolences or to obtain funeral arrangements:

Steve Shackelton, Associate Director for Visitor and Resource Protection
United States Department of the Interior - National Park Service
1849 C Street, NW
Washington, DC 20240

Phone: (202) 208-6843

Read more: http://www.odmp.org/officer/21076-park-ranger-margaret-anderson#ixzz1iL9FI28v

Margaret Anderson, Mt. Rainier park ranger fatally shot, had N.J. roots
MONDAY, 02 JANUARY 2012 13:17

BY ADELE SAMMARCO
NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

DEVELOPING STORY

34-year-old park ranger Margaret Anderson was fatally shot Sunday morning, New Year's Day, during a routine traffic stop in the park. Police say the suspect didn't respond to a request to pull over at a checkpoint, which prompted a ranger to radio for assistance. Anderson responded to that call and set up her patrol car as a roadblock.

That’s when Anderson, police say, was ambushed and shot before exiting her vehicle.

The suspect then fled into the vast national park whose border is about 50 miles southeast of Seattle.

According to the Los Angeles Times, the 368-square-mile park was placed on lockdown and remained closed Monday as about 125 visitors and 17 staff members spent half the night held-up at the Paradise visitor's center, about a mile above where Anderson was shot, after park officials determined it was too dangerous to let them leave.

Authorities say evacuations began shortly after midnight, with visitors being escorted in small groups down to a fire station near park headquarters in Ashford, Washington where they were questioned by the FBI.

Police had called 24-year-old Benjamin Colton Barnes, an Iraq war veteran, a "strong person of interest,” who they say is armed and dangerous, and highly trained in survival skills.

Earlier this afternoon, a local Seattle television station reported that a body had been found dead within Mount Rainier National Park. While it is believed to be Barnes, the identity has not been confirmed officially.

Mount Rainier National Park spokeswoman Lee Taylor told CNN there is about four to five feet of snow on the ground, including about two feet of fresh powder, where the gunman had escaped.

"There's a lot of snow on the ground, (and) it would be difficult to move through quickly," Taylor told CNN. "And it's heavily forested."

Mount Rainier’s summit elevation is 14,411 feet and is considered to be one of the most dangerous active volcanoes in the world, comprising of 235,625 acres in the Cascade Range.

Authorities say Barnes is considered a suspect in an earlier shooting that broke out at a New Years Eve party in Skyway, Washington that left four people wounded, two of them critically.

In July of 2011, the mother of Barnes’ child had alleged he suffered from post-traumatic stress following his deployments to Iraq. According to court documents, Barnes was involved in a custody dispute in Tacoma during which the mother sought a temporary restraining order against him. In an affidavit, the woman wrote that Barnes was suicidal and possibly suffered from PTSD after his deployment to Iraq in 2007-2008.

She said he gets easily irritated, angry and depressed and keeps an arsenal of weapons in his home, according to court records.

Police recovered the abandoned blue Pontiac registered to Barnes which contained weapons, body armor and survival gear.

It has been legal for people to take loaded firearms into Mount Rainier since 2010, when a federal law went into effect that made possession of firearms in national parks subject to state gun laws.

According to USA Today, the outgoing chair of the Coalition of National Park Service Retirees said Congress should be regretting its decision to allow loaded weapons in national parks. Chairman Bill Wade called Sunday's shooting “a tragedy that could have been prevented.”

Anderson was a Park Ranger at Mount Rainier for the past four years and according to Taylor, "was on the job not for money or for glory, but out of a love for wild places and the national parks."

Anderson was born near Toronto, and according to the Seattle Times, grew up in Connecticut and Westfield, N.J. She graduated from Westfield High School in 1995. Her father, Rev. Paul Kritsch, is a Lutheran minister in Scotch Plains, N.J.

"She was a person with a quick smile, a very gentle person, a very competent ranger," Taylor told CNN in an interview, "This gunman took the life of somebody who had a great deal to live for and was making great contributions to society by being a national park ranger."

She is survived by her husband, who is also a park ranger, as well as a 4-year-old and a 1-year-old.

http://www.newjerseynewsroom.com/nation/margaret-anderson-mt-rainier-park-ranger-fatally-shot-had-nj-roots

This is what that damned war did to some of these men!!!! My Opinion ONLY!!

By MIKE BAKER | AP – 35 mins ago

MOUNT RAINIER NATIONAL PARK, Washington (AP) — An armed Iraq War veteran suspected of killing a Mount Rainier National Park ranger managed to evade snowshoe-wearing SWAT teams and dogs on his trail for nearly a day. He couldn't, however, escape chest-deep snow.

A plane searching the remote wilderness for Benjamin Colton Barnes, 24, on Monday discovered his body lying face down on the mountain hours from where authorities could get to him. The cause of death was not immediately made public.

Barnes is believed to have fled to the remote park on Sunday to hide after an earlier shooting at a New Year's house party near Seattle that wounded four, two critically.

Authorities suspect he shot ranger Margaret Anderson later Sunday.

SWAT teams more used to urban standoffs trekked deep into the backcountry, unfamiliar territory for them.

"We have SWAT team members with snowshoes on the side of a mountain," Pierce County Sheriff's spokesman Ed Troyer said. "This has never happened before."

Immediately after Sunday's shooting, police cleared out the park of visitors and mounted a manhunt.

Fear that tourists could be caught in the crossfire in a shootout with Barnes, who had survivalist training, prompted officials to hold more than a 100 people at the visitors' center before evacuating them in the middle of the night.

Barnes, who was believed to be carrying a cache of weapons, has had a troubled transition to civilian life, with accusations he suffers post-traumatic stress disorder and is suicidal.

He was involved in a custody dispute in July, during which his toddler daughter's mother sought a temporary restraining order against him, according to court documents.

The woman told authorities he was suicidal and possibly suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder after deploying to Iraq in 2007-2008, and had once sent her a text message saying "I want to die."

She alleged that he got easily irritated, angry and depressed and kept an arsenal of weapons in his home.

Undated photos provided by police showed a shirtless, tattooed Barnes brandishing two large weapons.

Late Sunday police said Barnes was a suspect in a shooting incident.

On New Year's, there was an argument at a house party in Skyway, south of Seattle, and gunfire erupted, police said. Barnes was connected to the shooting, said Sgt. Cindi West, King County Sheriff's spokeswoman.

Police believe Barnes headed to the remote park wilderness to "hide out" following the Skyway shooting.

"The speculation is that he may have come up here, specifically for that reason, to get away," parks spokesman Kevin Bacher told reporters early Monday. "The speculation is he threw some stuff in the car and headed up here to hide out."

Anderson had set up a roadblock Sunday morning to stop a man who had blown through a checkpoint rangers use to check if vehicles have tire chains for winter conditions. A gunman opened fire on her before she was able to exit her vehicle, authorities say.

Park superintendent Randy King said Anderson, a 34-year-old mother of two young girls who was married to another Rainier ranger, had served as a park ranger for about four years.

http://news.yahoo.com/police-body-found-us-park-gunman-224005459.html

Murdered Park Ranger Margaret Anderson was 'An Amazing Mom,' Says Relative

Posted on Jan 02, 2012 @ 06:42PM

AP Photo
By Radar Staff

The mother-in-law of murdered park ranger Margaret Anderson has spoken exclusively to RadarOnline about what an amazing mom she was.

Cynthia Anderson says her son Eric is “devastated” by the loss of his wife and says that Margaret was a wonderful woman.

“I last saw Margaret in September when she came to visit us in Massachusetts,” Cynthia shared. “She loved the outdoors and we did lots of things together with the kids.”

Margaret and Eric, who also worked as a park ranger, were married for six years and are parents to Anna, who turns 4 next month, and Katie who will be 2 in May.

“She was an excellent wife, great daughter-in-law, and a loving mother,” Cynthia added. “Now those two precious girls have to grow up without a mother. It’s devastating.

“Eric is doing as well as can be expected. He has people around him helping to support him. We are a close family.”

Margaret was gunned down at Rainier National Park early Sunday morning. Iraq war veteran Benjamin Colton Barnes, 24, is the only suspect. A body believed to be his was found Monday in the deep snow.

As RadarOnline.com reported, a gunman fired shots at Anderson and another at the ranger.

Anderson would have been armed, explained Park spokesman Kevin Bacher. She was one of the rangers tasked with law enforcement, but she was shot before she had even exited her vehicle.

Police also wanted to speak to Barnes with regard to a shooting at a house party late Sunday night in Skyway where four people were left wounded, two of them are in critical condition.

Court documents show that Barnes was involved in a custody dispute in Tacoma last July and his toddler’s mother sought a temporary restraining order against him.

In her declaration, she said it was possible Barnes was suffering from PTSD and was suicidal following his deployment to Iraq from 2007 to 2008, and kept a lot of weapons at his home, was easily irritated and depressed.

http://www.radaronline.com/exclusives/2012/01/murdered-park-ranger-margaret-anderson-amazing-mom-says-family-member-exclusive

SEATTLE -- The man who authorities believe killed a park ranger Sunday was angry and suicidal, according to court documents filed last year by his ex-girlfriend.

Benjamin Colton Barnes, who was found dead Monday at Mount Rainier National Park after allegedly shooting and killing Margaret Anderson, had a 1-year-old daughter. That child's mother sought sole custody of the girl last year, claiming in court documents that Barnes "gets easily irritated, angry, depressed and frustrated." She said Barnes sent her a text message in July that said, "I want to die."

She also claimed Barnes had a lot of weapons in his home, including firearms and knives. "I am fearful of what Benjamin is capable of with the small arsenal he has in his home and his recent threat of suicide," she said in court papers.

Barnes lived in Seattle's Eastlake neighborhood, on Minor Avenue East, until last summer, neighbors said.
Federal investigators stopped by that apartment complex Sunday night to see if anyone had seen Barnes recently, neighbors said. But no one has seen him since he moved out last summer.

"He was quiet, kept to himself" said neighbor Jason Barbier.

"He never talked to us, never made eye contact," said Melanie Hall, another former neighbor.

The Seattle Times reported that Barnes served in Iraq but received a misconduct discharge at Fort Lewis after he was charged with driving under the influence and improper transport of a privately owned weapon. His service ended in fall of 2009, the Times reported.

Barnes is originally from Riverside, Calif., according to his Facebook profile. "All of his family lives in California," his ex-girlfriend wrote in court papers.

One of the tattoos on Barnes' stomach is the trademark raincross for Riverside, reported The Press-Enterprise in Inland Southern California.

Another one of his tattoos shows hands forming the letters "L" and "A" in sign language, which might be a reference to nearby Los Angeles, said Gabe Morales with Gang Prevention Services. (Authorities do not believe Barnes had any connections to gangs.)

http://www.king5.com/news/local/Ex-girlfriend-feared-suspect-was-angry-suicidal-136550393.html