On New Year's Day, a Park Ranger at Rainier National Park was shot and killed. A local man named Benjamin Colton Barnes is "a person of extreme interest" for the shooting and is the center of a manhunt tonight. Seventeen staff members and 125 visitors at the Park's Jackson Visitor Center in Paradise were on lock-down until about 11:30 Sunday night and are now being debriefed by authorities.
The incident began inside the Park at about 10:30 am Sunday when Barnes failed to stop at a tire chain checkpoint near Longmire. One Park Ranger chased the car as Ranger Anderson pulled her car across the road near the Barn Flats area as a roadblock. The man apparently stopped his car, jumped out and opened fire on Anderson. She managed to call for help but deputies were fired upon when they approached her car. They managed to get a small team together to get to her, but unfortunately, she was dead by then. Barnes fled on foot and is being hunted by over 150 law enforcement personnel from several departments. Aircraft and infra-red is being utilized. Barnes is believed to be armed with a high-powered rifle.
The King County Sheriff's office is also seeking Barnes in connection with a shooting in Renton early Sunday morning. The incident left 4 people wounded, two critically.
Ranger Margaret Anderson was married to a fellow ranger. They had two daughters, approximately 2 and 4. The family lives in Eatonville. Both Anderson and her husband began working at Mount Rainier four years ago. Park Superintendent Randy King said her death was weighing on rangers and visitors alike.
When she was killed she was wearing a black bar over her badge in honor of U.S. Park Police Sgt. Michael Boehm, who died Dec. 16 in Washington, D.C., while helping another officer with a critically injured person. Ranger Anderson is the first law enforcement ranger killed on-duty on Mount Rainier since climbing rangers Phil Otis and Sean Ryan fell to their deaths in 1995 while trying to rescue a man with a broken ankle on the mountain’s east side.
There are a few things about Benjamin Barnes we may be able to ascertain by his tattoos. You can see that he has a lot of them in the picture at left. One of them reads "ODEN," a spelling of the Norse god's name favored by a White Supremacist heavy metal band called Skythrone. A sample of their lyrics:
Oh, Yarila, help me fly to your Skythrone in the Heaven empire.
Rhugevit, Rhudogast, Sventovit!
Give me your force!
Oh, Yarila, open your power for me!
Oh, Lucifer, Satanail you and else!
Eyes are for us, all White Gods!
Perun, Svarog... Oden, Yarila and Toyl
All together, all brothers, help me friends, with joice other.
Oh, Lucifer, Satanail you and other gods
Are protector and defender for White People, White Power
We are together, we are together, we are together for White Power!
The last 2 lines are... interesting. The band is Russian and is listed on the Spirit Of Metal website. The page shows that the band has three members: Masha, Eddy Ericksson and Paul Karamoff. Two albums, The Way and Saga Of Immortal Heroes are listed in their discography.
Barnes also sports a tattoo on his right arm that spells "IOMA" in Old English lettering. I've searched this and the only thing I can find is a small band from Southern California. Another tattoo Mr. Barnes bears is on the back of his neck and lists the Seven Deadly Sins. Of course, we cannot assume that Barnes is a White Supremacist, but the tattoos he sports indicate the possibility. This is why it's important to know what all his tats mean. So, if anyone has any info on these, please elucidate in a comment.
Authorities believe that Barnes is also wearing body armor and may have additional weapons. His car was full of weapons and ammunition. Authorities say that he has some weapons training and he possesses high-end weapons (I had heard initially that he was an Iraq veteran but more recent reports don't mention this, so it may have been a mistake). Judging by the items that were in the car, they feel that it is possible that he planned on being in the Park, maybe even hiding out there. This has also brought up the controversial 2010 law allowing guns in National Parks.
Our sympathies go out to Ranger Anderson's family and friends. Especially the 2 little girls who will now have to grow up without their Mother.