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NATIONAL PARK SERVICE MORNING REPORT Friday, October 27, 2006 =============================================================================================================== INCIDENTS Shenandoah NP Rangers Investigate Threats Made By School Group Member On the afternoon of October 20th, the park received a 911 call from a father who had just read a series of email messages that had been addressed to his high school aged daughter from a classmate of hers. Among a number of dark thoughts expressed in those messages, including Satanic and other anti-social remarks, the 16-year-old boy made several references to killing a specific teacher from their school, and suggested that he would do this while on a school field trip to the park - specifically when the group reached the summit of Old Rag Mountain. The father also interpreted one message as containing a death threat directed towards his daughter. The field trip, involving more than 60 students and teachers, was well underway at that time. Based on the time of day when the call was received, rangers estimated that the group was likely to be in the vicinity of the remote summit of Old Rag. The park's incident command staff took several immediate actions - a team of rangers was dispatched to close area trails and intercept the group, a Park Police helicopter and several USPP SWAT members were placed on alert, and the special agents duty stationed at the park reviewed the emails and began conducting a series of telephone interviews in an effort to determine the seriousness of the threats. About 50 minutes into the incident, rangers were able to make contact by cell phone with the field trip leader. She reported that the members of the group were just leaving the summit and that the young man in question had not shown any unusual behavior. She was instructed to break the party up into smaller hiking groups, separating the boy from the target of his threats, until rangers could arrive on scene. At about 4 p.m., rangers intercepted the group on Saddle Trail and took the boy into custody without incident. He had no weapons with him. Agents and rangers conducted a series of interviews and determined that the boy posed little actual threat to anybody. He was released to the custody of his parents that evening. No federal charges were field and the appropriate local law enforcement agency was notified for follow-up. [Clayton Jordan, Deputy Chief Ranger] Horseshoe Bend NMP Serious Bicycle Accident Park staff responded to a report of a bicycle rider who had been hit by a truck and trailer on Highway 49 south of the Tallapoosa River on the afternoon of Saturday, October 14th. The driver of the Ford Ranger pickup truck had been heading southbound through the park when he struck the bicycle rider with his passenger mirror and the fender of the right trailer wheel. The rider, a 28-year-old man from North Carolina, was participating in a timed event that was to end that evening nearly 50 miles from the park. Although the cyclist was thrown from his bicycle and went down a steep embankment, he was conscious and breathing during the entire incident. Park staff treated the cyclist until Tallapoosa County EMS arrived and transported him to Russell Medical Center in Alexander City, Alabama. He was released from the hospital on October 15th. He is in good condition and has returned home. [Marianne Mills, Superintendent] OTHER NEWS Other news from today's edition of InsideNPS, the National Park Service's home page: Spain has loaned some artifacts taken from shipwrecks found in park waters to the park. Interesting legal case - worth reading. Glacier is seeking comments on a draft EIS on a railroad company proposal to blow down potentially threatening avalanches in the park and Flathead NF. Three firefighters were killed yesterday on a wildland fire in California. Ranger Fletcher Ogg received a DUI enforcement award from MADD. Three job announcements - GS-9 ranger in the Smokies, GS-12 AO at Rock Creek, and a GS-6/7 purchasing agent at Sleeping Bear Dunes. To link to InsideNPS, click on HYPERLINK "http://inside.nps.gov/" http://inside.nps.gov/ * * * * * Prepared by Visitor and Resource Protection, WASO, with the cooperation and support of Delaware Water Gap NRA. --- ### --- |