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NATIONAL PARK SERVICE MORNING REPORT BLACKBERRY EDITION Tuesday, June 20, 2006 =============================================================================================================== INCIDENTS Mount Rainier NP Search Continues For Missing Concession Employee The search for concession employee D.Q., 22, was suspended on Sunday night, but was scheduled to resume again yesterday morning. Crews began scouring the steep, rugged terrain around Longmire in the Nisqually River drainage early on Sunday morning and before day's end had covered 10 square miles (approximately 6,000 acres of terrain) and 20 miles of trails, including the north slope of Eagle Peak, the south slope of Rampart Ridge, the Cougar Rock area, the trails to the Kautz River, and country extending out to the south park boundary. After the ground search was suspended at 6:00 p.m., the Washington State Patrol used infrared to continue the search by air into the early evening hours. The search was to expand on Monday, with ground crews, dog teams and a helicopter continuing to search new areas. Park protection rangers are pursuing all angles of D.Q.'s disappearance, with officers assigned to follow all leads. Search efforts began Saturday after D.Q. was reported missing by her roommate just before noon. She was last seen on Friday between 6:30 and 8:00 p.m. at the National Park Inn, where she is employed by Guest Services Incorporated. D.Q. had mentioned that she was going hiking after her shift on Friday evening and is presumed missing in the Longmire area of the park, where her car was found. Approximately 15 teams of rangers and volunteers, six dog teams, a helicopter and an airplane participated in Sunday's search. [Patti Wold, Information Officer] Grand Canyon NP Multiple Incidents On South Rim Over the two week period between May 21st and June 3rd, rangers dealt with a series of significant incidents along with eight assists to the Coconino County Sheriff's Office, seven domestic violence incidents and numerous other calls: Assist with Manhunt - A Coconino County deputy asked for assistance in Tusayan, just outside the park, on May 23rd. A 30-year-old man was holding a stolen handgun to the head of another man in a hotel lobby and threatening to kill him. The assailant believed that the man had attempted to sexually assault his girlfriend the previous day and was angry about it. The second man, however, had no involvement in the assault. The assailant fled on foot onto nearby Forest Service lands. Rangers, deputies, highway patrol officers and a DPS helicopter established a perimeter and conducted a three-hour search for the man, but he remains at large. Felony Theft - On May 25th, a county deputy reported that he was in contact with a man outside the park who had set off a theft alarm when he walked out of a gift store with a day pack. Inside the pack, the deputy found shirts and necklaces bearing the park concessioner's price tags. The man was contacted by rangers when he was dropped off at his concession employee apartment. He admitted that he'd stolen the items in his pack and permitted the rangers to search his room to show them that he hadn't stolen anything else. During the consent search, the rangers found about $1,200 worth of merchandise that the man subsequently admitted to stealing from park concessioners and stores outside the park. Many of these items also still bore price tags. He was charged with theft (18 USC 661) and possession of stolen property (18 USC 662), both felonies. Felony Warrant Arrests - During a car stop at Desert View on May 26th, a ranger found that there were extraditable felony warrants on file against two of the vehicle's occupants. The ranger, who was alone, kept the two men and four other people inside the car until back-up arrived. All six were then removed from the vehicle using high-risk vehicle stop procedures. The two men with warrants against them were taken to the county jail. Vehicle Stop with Confrontation - On May 27th, a ranger attempted to stop a speeding car, but the driver refused to pull over and fled at a high rate of speed. Rangers conducted a felony stop on an unpaved Forest Service road just outside of the park. One of the seven people in the vehicle obeyed their commands and got out of the car. Because the windows were tinted, rangers could not seen inside and didn't discover the other six people until they approached the vehicle with an assisting county deputy. Four were removed without incident. One man declined to show his hands as ordered and reached inside his coat pocket, pulling out a can of beer. The last occupant physically resisted removal from the vehicle and attempted to grab a rangers' gun. The ranger used his Taser on the man and took him into custody. One of the passengers was arrested on an outstanding warrant, and the driver was arrested on both an outstanding warrant and a DUI charge. Confrontation with Juvenile - A ranger responding to a noise complaint at the concession employee laundry in a South Rim trailer park came upon a local juvenile who rangers knew well from previous contacts. He fled when the ranger attempted to contact him, but she chased him down and placed him under arrest with assistance from her back-up. During the contact, the juvenile, who was extremely intoxicated, spit at the rangers, threatened them, and attempted to break the window of a patrol vehicle with his head. He was taken to the county juvenile detention center. Domestic violence Confrontation - A man knocked on the door of an off-duty ranger's house on May 31st and reported that he'd fled his RV after his domestic partner, who was drunk, had attempted to stab him with a large knife. Rangers went to the RV, but received no reply at the door. They eventually entered the vehicle and found the man hiding under his bed. He refused to comply with repeated commands to come out, but the rangers were able to pull him out. He was arrested for disorderly conduct (fighting) and being under the influence. [Karyl Yeston, South Rim Shift Supervisor] Yellowstone NP Aggressive Black Bear Captured, Removed From Canyon Area Rangers trapped and removed a black bear late Saturday afternoon because its aggressive behavior posed a continuing threat to the safety of park visitors and employees. The bear charged a number of visitors while raiding campsites in Canyon campground on Saturday morning. The adult male bear broke into one vehicle and attempted to break in to several others. At one point, it was observed walking on top of several vehicles in an attempt to gain access to them. The bear was sprayed several times with pepper spray and was hazed repeatedly by park staff in an attempt to get him to move away from people in the campground. Although these efforts failed, the bear eventually left on its own and was seen grazing on clover in a meadow near Canyon Lodge for several hours. Based on the animal's aggressive behavior, lack of fear of people, and its success at getting human food, the decision was made to capture and remove the bear. As capture operations were being set-up Saturday afternoon, the bear returned to the campground and began rummaging through campsites and acquiring human food from picnic tables, tents, coolers and fire grates. As he entered C Loop, the bear was attracted by an elk hind quarter used as bait and captured in a steel culvert-type trap. The bear was transported to park headquarters at Mammoth Hot Springs where, based on his aggressive and threatening behavior, the decision was made to euthanize the animal. His carcass was taken to the Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks lab in Bozeman, Montana for a necropsy. [Public Affairs, Yellowstone NP] OTHER NEWS Other news of interest from today's edition of InsideNPS, which can be found at this address if your inside the NPS ( HYPERLINK "http://inside.nps.gov/" http://inside.nps.gov/) and at this address if you're outside the NPS ( HYPERLINK "http://www.nps.gov/applications/digest/" http://www.nps.gov/applications/digest/). Note that not all articles that appear in the former make it into the latter: Secretary Kempthorne formally releases final draft of 2006 version of Management Policies: HYPERLINK "http://inside.nps.gov/index.cfm?handler=viewnpsnewsarticle&type=Announcements&id=4565" http://inside.nps.gov/index.cfm?handler=viewnpsnewsarticle&type=Announcements&id=4565 Access to Cape Cod NS beaches for ORV's has been closed due to nesting piping plovers: HYPERLINK "http://inside.nps.gov/index.cfm?handler=viewnpsnewsarticle&type=Announcements&id=4559" http://inside.nps.gov/index.cfm?handler=viewnpsnewsarticle&type=Announcements&id=4559 Unexpected death of Dale Scheier, chief of facility management and ranching at LBJ: HYPERLINK "http://inside.nps.gov/index.cfm?handler=viewcommunityarticle&type=PeopleNews&id=1264" http://inside.nps.gov/index.cfm?handler=viewcommunityarticle&type=PeopleNews&id=1264 Eddie Lopez named superintendent at Bryce Canyon: HYPERLINK "http://inside.nps.gov/index.cfm?handler=viewcommunityarticle&type=PeopleNews&id=1260" http://inside.nps.gov/index.cfm?handler=viewcommunityarticle&type=PeopleNews&id=1260 * * * * * Prepared by Visitor and Resource Protection, WASO, with the cooperation and support of Delaware Water Gap NRA. --- ### --- |