Brother Of Yellowstone Shooter Can’t Keep ‘Getaway’ Car, Federal Magistrate Says

The brother of a concessionaire employee who was shot to death while firing upon Yellowstone National Park rangers in July 2024 has no claim to the deceased shooter’s car — which the government wants to keep.

That was the ruling Friday of U.S. Magistrate Judge Scott P. Klosterman in the legal action by which the U.S. Attorney’s Office of Wyoming seeks to seize the gunman’s 2021 Nissan Rogue.

The decision puts the U.S. government close to owning the car, with just a few more procedural steps before the case is finalized.

Samson Lucas Bariah Fussner, 28, parked the Nissan in the Canyon Village neighborhood within Yellowstone National Park the night of July 3-4, 2024, after taking a woman hostage and before opening fire on park rangers, court documents say.

He shot one ranger in the right foot, causing a severe injury by which the ranger lost multiple toes, according to the government’s forfeiture motion.

The Case Against The Car

The federal prosecutor’s office alleges that Fussner had backed the car into a parking spot that night as if planning to use it as a getaway vehicle, and that the car was an integral part of an attempted mass shooting scheme.

That claim underpins the federal government’s bid to keep the car. Four firearms and assorted magazines and ammunition are also attached to the crime and should be seized by the government, the federal prosecutor’s office says.

Lucas Fussner’s brother Noah Fussner countered in March, asserting his claim on the car and saying his parents signed ownership of the Nissan over to him in mid-July 2024 — days after the shootout.

Mid-July was too late, because the Nissan was already implicated as a guilty possession in a crime by then, wrote Klosterman in his Friday order.

“No third party can acquire a legally cognizable interest in a piece of property at any time after the date of the illegal act which serves as the basis of the (government’s request to seize it),” wrote Klosterman, quoting from a 1991 federal case on the matter.

The magistrate granted the government’s request to “strike,” or exclude, from the case Noah Fussner’s claim on the car.

Noah Fussner had laid no claim to his brother’s guns, magazines and ammunition. He hoped those would be sold “as a small token of reparation to the NPS officer injured on the line of duty,” he wrote in court filings. 

The Other Stuff

Noah Fussner told Cowboy State Daily on Tuesday that he was not optimistic about getting the car, but he wanted to assert a claim on his brother’s other, non-firearm possessions.

“It’s been over a year since the event, and I pray that the FBI will be expedient in returning personal items,” wrote Fussner in a text message. “And that I’ll be able to work with family to get them to myself as Lucas wished.”

The prosecutor’s office did not file for possession of the other things within the car, which Noah Fussner told the court those could include a gaming laptop, books, a guitar case, camping equipment, a professional camera, clothing, a China mint silver coin and a bag of tools.

FBI Denver spokeswoman Vikki Migoya told Cowboy State Daily in a Tuesday email that in this case, "the FBI cannot return personal property until the estate of the deceased meets legal requirements. If and when that occurs, the FBI will return personal property through the recognized executor."

Property used in a crime is subject to forfeiture, essentially government seizure, but personal property that is seized is returned to the owner or his estate's executor, Migoya added.

Where They Go

Federal law enforcement agents retained the car and guns after the incident, but don’t officially own them at this juncture.

Typically, guns involved in crimes are destroyed once the U.S. government comes to own them, and cars are often sold, former Wyoming U.S. Attorney Eric Heimann told Cowboy State Daily in January.

Money from selling the car would go into a federal forfeiture fund, which supports law enforcement programs and is sometimes used to pay “general treasury obligations,” Heimann added.

The Detailed Version

The forfeiture petition Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeremy Gross filed Jan. 3 contains the most detailed and raw account of the shootout the government has released so far.

Lucas Fussner vented white supremacist and antisemitic views on the forum Vanguard News Network in the months leading up to the Yellowstone incident, the petition says.

He was “on the precipice of a breakdown,” Lucas reportedly wrote in a March 16, 2024, post.

He described his depression, loneliness and mental anguish, and said he wished for a white nation. He lamented his inability to connect with others, the petition says, adding that he said he despised Christians and refused “to fraternize with race-traitors that support non-whites or jews,” says the narrative.

“This year may well be my last. I do not believe in suicide, but I do believe in a last stand,” Gross related from Lucas Fussner’s personal communications.

He was trying to get a seasonal job in a “nice white mountainous area or state park” and expose himself to different “white people.” If he couldn’t do that, “look forward to seeing me in the news,” the petition relates.

He’d ‘Go Postal Here’

Working as a Xanterra concessions employee, Lucas Fussner was not surrounded by white people.

He texted his brother July 1 that he was “upset” in Yellowstone and needed to find another job or he’d “go postal here,” says the narrative.

“I can’t do it anymore,” Lucas Fussner told his brother, according to the petition. “I think 4th of July would be a good time. Lots of crowds and they’d think it was fireworks.”

On July 2, he texted his brother again to complain that Yellowstone was becoming “80% J1s (migrants). 50% chink/30% spic,” the petition says, adding that he wrote, “Whites seem to have disappeared … Very odd hellscape im in (sic).”

Lucas texted about a woman he worked with, said he was obsessed with her and that she was “German stock,” the narrative says.

“Continuing to live would be meaningless,” Lucas Fussner texted his brother July 3, according to the narrative.

“I would just continue to suffer and feel nothingness even if I could gain everything, I could logically think I wanted,” he continued. “Dead is a good thing. It is a release. Ive (sic) lived much longer than I should have already … But I want a good dearh (sic). One that was fun and had some kind of meaning.”

With A Pistol

At 10 p.m. July 3, Lucas Fussner entered the dorm room of the woman he liked and took her hostage, Gross wrote.

He knocked, then barged in when she opened the door. He pulled a knife out, put it away and pulled out a handgun, which he never pointed at her but clutched throughout the night. He held her hostage for about two hours, the narrative says.

He “ranted about his mental health issues, his racist ideations and his plans to carry out a mass shooting at the employee dining room in Canyon Lodge and the fireworks display at West Yellowstone, Montana,” the petition continues.

Lucas Fussner told the woman he wanted to kill himself 10 years prior but couldn’t pull the trigger. But he wanted to “do something major” and make a statement about American politics; and that he didn’t like how America was bringing in non-Americans and changing the culture, says the narrative.

“He indicated he thought all blacks were evil and reported hating Jews,” Gross wrote.

The narrative says Lucas Fussner told the woman about his last-minute plan to shoot up the Canyon employee dining room.

Just before midnight, the woman’s roommate came home. Lucas hid the gun under his arm. The roommate went to shower, and Lucas Fussner left, telling the woman that if the cops came to find him, he’d have to come back to her room with “something more powerful that doors won’t stop,” the petition says.

'You Aren't Gonna Be Happy'

Once he was gone, the woman called Xanterra security, warning about the mass shooting threat and describing her two hours of captivity. A security officer called National Park Service dispatch and reported the incident.

Park rangers spent the early morning hours of July 4 searching for Lucas Fussner.

At 1:18 a.m., he “started frantically texting his brother again,” saying he’d done something “dumb” but didn’t want to do time in prison or be a felon because of it, reportedly.

“I should have waited until July 4th and just done a crowd, but something compelled me otherwise,” Lucas Fussner texted, according to the petition. “I faltered in the plan of full hostage doh! ... You aren’t gonna be happy when you wake up lol but maybe I can do something funny.”

Xanterra security personnel found Lucas Fussner’s 2021 Nissan Rogue in the Canyon parking lot, unoccupied and backed into a parking space on one side of the Canyon Lodge. It looked poised for “a quick getaway,” wrote Gross.

Noah Fussner disputed this in a Jan. 31 filing, writing that the claim that his brother parked the vehicle “strategically” is misleading, “since the vehicle was parked more than halfway across the mentioned lot.”

Rangers saw a Ruger .380-caliber pistol in plain view on the center console of the car.

When they opened the unlocked door and searched the car, they found the gun was loaded with a round in the chamber, the narrative says.

They also found a loaded 9 mm magazine for a Glock-type handgun, rifle magazines and multiple high-capacity Glock-style handgun magazines. They found an individual first-aid kit behind the driver’s seat, and a 12-gauge shotgun in a guitar case, the petition says.

Not all of these guns were involved in the shootout, countered Noah Fussner in his own filing, since his brother wasn’t in the car with them throughout the incident. The 12-gauge shotgun, for example, was in a hard case with two individual locks.

Noah Fussner also called into question whether investigators had validated Lucas Fussner’s alleged online comments, and had proved through alias connection that he was in fact their author.

As for the first-aid kit and the car’s position, either indicate a “diabolical plan” wrote Noah Fussner. The first-aid kit was the sort to patch small wounds and scratches, the brother added.

“It was shown that (Lucas) Fussner had problems with mental health issues and wished to commit ‘death by cop,’” wrote Noah Fussner. 

Out With A Rifle

At 8:05 a.m., Lucas Fussner exited the woods east of Canyon Lodge, northeast of the Grizzly Dorm. A park ranger the petition calls “Ranger 1” saw him carrying an AR-15-type rifle with his left hand on the foregrip and right hand on the pistol grip, Gross wrote.

Ranger 1 yelled for Lucas Fussner to stop, who turned and shot at the ranger, who took cover behind a tree, says the narrative.

The petition says Lucas Fussner went toward the employee dining room through the loading dock area. Two more rangers, called Rangers 2 and 3, were stationed in the lodge.

Ranger 2 exchanged gunfire. Lucas Fussner shot Ranger 2 in the right foot, causing a severe foot injury that required Ranger 2 to undergo multiple surgeries, eventually losing multiple toes, Gross wrote.

Then he exchanged gunfire with Ranger 3, the petition says.

Ranger 1 rushed to the loading dock area and encountered Lucas Fussner. Ranger 1 shot at him, and he ran toward Ranger 1, says the document.

“Ranger 1 continued to fire until Lucas was neutralized and lying on the ground,” added Gross.

A physician later pronounced Lucas Fussner dead. On his person, agents found a Glock 9 mm pistol and “assorted ammunition and magazines,” the petition says.

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