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NATIONAL PARK SERVICE MORNING REPORT BLACKBERRY EDITION Thursday, June 15, 2006 =============================================================================================================== INCIDENTS Kennesaw Mountain NBP Assault with Deadly Weapon On the evening of Friday, June 2nd, a woman was assaulted with a knife on the trail leading from the park visitor center to Kennesaw Avenue/Burnt Hickory fire road. The woman told ranger Anthony Winegar that she'd been running on the trail when someone grabbed her from behind and placed a knife to her neck. The woman said that she was able to head butt her assailant with the back of her head and that she was then able to get away from him. Winegar and Cobb County officers searched the entire area, but were unable to find the assailant. The woman was treated for minor scratches and drover herself home. The case is still under investigation. [Lloyd R. Morris, Chief Ranger] Joshua Tree National Park Attempted Burglary of Ranger Residence In the early morning hours of Saturday, June 10th, a man attempted to enter the ranger residence at Indian Cove by smashing in a window with a gardening tool. One of the residents was at home asleep during the incident. A dog in the house started barking just prior to the window breaking, awakening the occupant and scaring away the suspect. The resident called 911, and San Bernadino County Sheriff's Office deputies responded, as there were no rangers on duty at the time of the attempted break-in. The deputies were able to locate the would-be burglar at a nearby picnic table, drinking a Nalgene bottle full of beer, and arrested him for felony attempted burglary. [Dan Messaros, Acting Chief Ranger] Delaware Water Gap NRA Rescue of Injured Boy Scout Park dispatch received a cell phone call from a Boy Scout group on the Red Dot trail on Mount Tammany in the New Jersey District just before noon on Saturday, June 10th. The caller reported that a 12-year-old scout fell while hiking, that he'd injured his ankle and hip, and that he was unable to walk. The Red Dot is an arduous, rocky trail which climbs in elevation very quickly. A unified command was set up between the park's SAR team and the New Jersey State Park Service. Efforts to find the injured boy were delayed because of inaccurate information on the incident location. Based on initial assessments of the boy's injuries, the team decided to request a medical helicopter. The victim's location was just 20 minutes from a helispot, so a total of only 25 minutes elapsed from the team's arrival at the scene of the accident to the boy being loaded into a medevac helicopter. He was flown to Lehigh Valley Medical Center in Allentown, where he was treated for his injuries and released. A carryout would probably have taken several hours. [Phil Selleck, Chief Ranger] Colorado NM Man Commits Suicide by Driving Off Cliff On the afternoon of June 8th, rangers and members of the Mesa County technical rescue team recovered a body near a wrecked vehicle approximately 200 feet below Rim Rock Drive in Red Canyon. The suicide most likely occurred on May 18th. On that day, rangers received notice that a 49-year-old Grand Junction man was threatening to drive off a cliff near Cold Shivers Point. An immediate search was conducted in the Cold Shivers Point area and along Rim Rock Drive, but rangers found no signs of a vehicle going over the edge. On the morning of June 8th, a park volunteer was picking up litter near Rim Rock Drive when he noticed a white vehicle in Red Canyon. Rangers, Mesa County Sheriff's Office deputies, and the Colorado State Patrol officers are investigating. [Phil Akers, Chief Ranger] OTHER NEWS Other news of interest from today's edition of InsideNPS ( HYPERLINK "http://inside.nps.gov/" http://inside.nps.gov/): GRKO just concluded a deal that adds a 3,600-acre permanent viewshed easement to the park: HYPERLINK "http://inside.nps.gov/index.cfm?handler=viewnpsnewsarticle&type=Announcements&id=4548" http://inside.nps.gov/index.cfm?handler=viewnpsnewsarticle&type=Announcements&id=4548 MANA maintenance worker Don Turner died of a heart attack after a full day of work in the park - no clear indication of any cause-effect relationship: HYPERLINK "http://inside.nps.gov/index.cfm?handler=viewcommunityarticle&type=PeopleNews&id=1257" http://inside.nps.gov/index.cfm?handler=viewcommunityarticle&type=PeopleNews&id=1257 * * * * * Prepared by Visitor and Resource Protection, WASO, with the cooperation and support of Delaware Water Gap NRA. --- ### --- |