Yellowstone Releases Body Camera Footage From July 4 Shootout

Yellowstone National Park released body camera footage from three National Park Service law enforcement rangers Thursday, showing the July 4 shootout with a concessionaire worker that left one ranger wounded and the worker dead.

Xanterra concessionaire worker Samson Lucas Bariah Fussner, 28, held another Xanterra worker against her will for several hours in Yellowstone’s Canyon Village tourist and lodging area on the evening of July 3, according to YNP’s public statements on the incident.

Fussner eventually left.

His female co-worker got away and reported to law enforcement that Fussner had come to her home in Canyon Village while armed with a knife and a handgun. The dispatch report from the time also indicates Fussner threatened to kill the woman and target the employee dining room (EDR) in the village the next day, according to YNP statements on the incident.

The Release

YNP released a 911 audio recording along with its body camera footage Thursday.

The caller, a Xanterra security worker, told the dispatcher she was on her way to the Grizzly Dorm and was calling to report a female employee “is with some other people in the female bathroom downstairs,” and the employee “said a guy is threatening to kill her and shoot up the EDR tomorrow,” according to the recording.

When an NPS law enforcement officer responded, the woman told them Fussner planned to carry out mass shootings at July 4 events outside the park as well, according to a narrator over the YNP video compilation.

Yellowstone dispatch notified surrounding law enforcement agencies of the reported threat. Officers searched for Fussner and posted “strategically” in areas frequented by park visitors and concession employees. Fussner was still at large, says the video compilation.

By the early hours of July 4, more than 20 NPS law enforcement officers, including the Yellowstone/ Grand Teton Special Response Team, were searching for Fussner. Authorities also activated the crisis negotiation team and engaged a NPS victim advocate.

Unlocked Vehicle

Officers found Fussner’s unoccupied, unlocked vehicle in the main Canyon Village parking lot. They also found an unsecured handgun near the center console and driver’s seat in plain view, says the video compilation.

At 8:05 a.m., Fussner emerged from the woods with a semiautomatic rifle and encountered an NPS law enforcement officer near the Canyon Lodge. He fired at an officer the video calls “Officer #3,” according to the narrator.

Officers 1, 2 and 3 are labelled in the order in which they shot at Fussner. Officers 4 and 5 were part of the scene, but did not fire their weapons, says the video compilation.

The narrator does not identify the officers by name. Their faces are blurred in the video, as is Fussner’s.

After shooting at the officer, Fussner approached the loading dock of the building while firing through the doorway into the hall at Officer 1.

Officer 1 returned fire, but was also shot by Fussner, suffering nonlethal injury.

Officer 2 couldn’t return fire because he was in a perpendicular hallway not facing Fussner, according to a map included in the video compilation.

Bullet Holes

The video next features one photograph of Officer 1’s approximate view through a yellow-lit doorway and black sliding doors featuring the sign “Please Keep Door Closed.” Bullet holes are visible through the black door and metal paneling on the lower wall abutting it.

Assuming none of the holes are from other causes, the photograph shows about seven bullet holes.

The video features another photograph which it says depicts damage to the interior wall behind where Officer 1 stood.

“Many bullets penetrated consecutive walls of the building when Fussner fired at Officer #1,” says the compilation’s caption under the photo.

Assuming all holes were gunshot holes, the wall and door behind the officer show about 11 bullet strikes.

Unless It’s An Emergency

Officers 1 and 4 did not turn on their body cameras throughout the incident. Officer 2 didn’t activate his camera until after the initial shooting, but captured his own gunfire toward Fussner.

Officer 3 did not activate his camera until after the shooting, and didn’t capture footage of Officer 3 firing at Fussner.

Officer 5 activated her body camera during the shooting and ran toward the sound of gunfire, says the video compilation.

The narrator adds that NPS personnel on scene are required to activate their body cameras unless faced with an emergency situation requiring immediate life-saving or safety-preserving action.

Garage Bay

Officer 2’s video shows him leaving that perpendicular hallway and heading into the lodge’s garage bay, meeting Fussner at an open door leading into the bay, according to the narrator, a map and the video itself.

Fussner, clad in a black jacket, jeans and sneakers, approaches the open door from outside.

The video doesn’t have audio for the first few seconds. It shows Officer 2 next to a cork board with some notices pinned to it. He rushes into the sunlit garage bay.

Fussner is seen running toward the open garage door, with another vehicle or building, columns of trees and the sun’s glare streaming behind him. His face is blurred out.

Officer 2’s rifle swings toward Fussner. The body camera shifts to focus on Officer 2’s inner right arm as the officer fires repeatedly.

Both were wielding semiautomatic rifles, according to the narrator.

“Are you good?” Officer 2 calls to another agent.

“I’m hit in my (redacted) but I’m all right,” answers a male agent.

“K,” Officer 2 seems to say in response. “Is he on the ground?”

A fire alarm sounds repeatedly while the officer catches his breath. He turns to order some unknown people or person to stop descending nearby stairs.

Officer 3 Rounds The Corner

Around this same time, Officer 3 rounded an outside corner of the building and fired at Fussner as Fussner stood outside the garage door, after which Fussner fell to the ground, the narrator says.

That incident is not on camera.

The next video, another from Officer 2, shows him calling for emergency medical personnel while standing in the garage bay area gripping his rifle.

The officer then goes back through the perpendicular hallway and out through the loading dock door through which Fussner had originally shot Officer 1, according to the narrator’s characterization of the video.

Getting The Gun

The next video from Officer 4, shows Officer 4 pointing, then jogging through a lot past some dumpsters and toward the open garage door where Fussner lay face-up, between black ramp rails on the concrete. With cover from Officer 2, Officer 4 reaches down and removes the rifle from Fussner.

Fussner is wearing a black jacket, jeans and sneakers.

“(Redacted) is hit inside,” calls another agent.

“Firearm’s right here,” says Officer 4, before running through more dumpsters and toward a set of brown double doors.

“Is he in there?” asks Officer 4. “With you!”

He searches through the building and halls for Officer 1.

“I got (unintelligible)” says another agent.

Officer 4 climbs a stairway and finds at least two other agents and Officer 1. He assures the others that Fussner is down, saying ,“Yup, we’re good.”

Officer 1 reclines in uniform against a wall corner on the stair’s landing.

“You all right?” asks Officer 4.

“Yeah, I’m good,” says Officer 1.

Officer 1 appears to give a thumbs-up before the video ends.

The narrator says agents also found a semiautomatic pistol on Fussner, and later found multiple magazines of ammunition for the rifle near Fussner.

Officer 1 sustained a gunshot wound to a “lower extremity” and was taken to a medical facility.

Emergency personnel tried giving Fussner medical aid, but a doctor later pronounced Fusner dead.

The Special Response Team executed a “thorough room-by-room clearance of Canyon Lodge to ensure no further threats were present and no one else was injured,” says the narrator.

“It is noteworthy,” the narrator continues, “that despite a minimum of 200 visitors and employees in the Canyon Lodge area at the time of the incident, no additional individuals sustained physical injuries.”

Running Toward The Shots

The final video segment shows Officer 5 running toward the sound of gunfire during the shooting exchange.

Officer 5 commands bystanders to stay in their dorms. She runs and fights for breath, in the video.

In the video, an echoey series of at least nine gunshots sounds in the distance, followed by a crisper series of at least nine more gunshots.

Officer 5 runs past ladders and joins other agents at the base of some stairs.

Ongoing

The incident is still under investigation, says the video narrator.

NPS’s Office of Professional Responsibility is conducting an administrative investigation, while the FBI leads the incident investigation and will forward it’s results to the office of the U.S. Attorney for Wyoming, the narrator says.

Contact Clair McFarland at clair@cowboystatedaily.com

Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.