Suspect Benjamin Colton Barnes, 24, believed to be hiding in the Park
Also wanted for shooting of four people at New Year's Eve Party in Seattle
Victim: Margaret Anderson is a mother of two young daughters who has worked as a park ranger for four years
Authorities are scouring Mount Rainier National Park for a cold-blooded killer who gunned down a U.S. Forest Service Ranger and then fired at officers who were coming to help her.
Officials closed the park after the shooting yesterday, and asked people to stay out of the area while they search for a man carrying a long rifle.
He is also the prime suspect in the shooting of four people at New Year's Eve party hours earlier in the south of Seattle - which left two people critically injured.
The female ranger, Margaret Anderson, 34, a married mother of two young girls, was shot as she stopped the suspect's car.
A 'strong person of interest' has been identified as Benjamin Colton Barnes, 24, an Iraq war veteran who is believed to have strong wilderness survival skills and is heavily armed.
Pierce County Sheriff's Office spokesman Ed Troyer said authorities recovered Barnes' vehicle, which had weapons and body armour inside.
Authorities believed the gunman was still in the woods with an assault rifle. They asked people to stay away from the park, and for those already there to leave.
Mr Troyer said there were about 100 people hunkered down in lodges and cabins on the mountain. They were told to stay put because they could be in the line of fire.
Armoured vehicles were being brought in to ferry them safely out of the park.
Mr Troyer said authorities were following tracks in the snow they believe are from the gunman, and crews planned to bring an airplane through the area with heat-seeking capabilities. He added: 'We believe we have a good track on him, but he's way ahead of us'...[Full Article]
Wanted: Benjamin Colton Barnes is believed to have gunned down a U.S. Forest Service ranger after shooting four people at a New Year's Eve house party
Location unknown: Iraq War veteran Benjamin Colton Barnes is wanted by the authorities
'Strong person of interest': Benjamin Colton Barnes, who cops say has a military background and strong wilderness survival skills, is also a suspect in an earlier shooting incident at a New Year's Eve party
Phil Mocek of Seattle was told by TSA goons and police at the Albuquerque Airport on November 15, 2009, that he did not have the right to use a video camera in a public space outside a TSA Gestapo zone. He was also told that when goons ask him for ID, he must comply or the police will be called. Mocek was arrested for disorderly conduct and concealing his identity.
Mocek is a software developer and civil liberties advocate. He was in New Mexico in November of 2009 to attend the International Drug Policy Reform Conference on behalf of the Cannabis Defense Coalition.
Visible and audible in the airport video are Mocek, Albuquerque Airport Police Department officers Robert F. “Bobby” Dilley (badge number 116), Landrow “Wiggy” Wiggins (badge number 137), and Julio A. De La Peña (badge number 135), and TSA staff LTSO Jonathon Breedon, TSM Gerald Romero, STSO Anthony M. Schreiner, Greg Martinez, and BDO Laura Moots.
According to Edward Hasbrouck, founder of the Identity Project, a nonprofit organization that “builds public awareness about the effects of ID requirements on fundamental rights,” Mocek’s case marks the first time anyone has ever challenged the TSA’s authority to question and detain travelers, Seattle Weekly reported on January 19.
“[TSA] wants people to show ID and submit to a search and groping, but there’s no legal basis for most of this,” Hasbrouck said. “The TSA relies fundamentally on intimidation. The ultimate threat is ‘We’ll call the local police.’ And when they’re called in, they don’t say ‘We don’t see a crime here.’ They get that person out of there.”
On January 21, a jury cleared Mocek of all misdemeanor charges. “I feel good that we had police and TSA on record saying that you don’t have to show ID to fly and that you can use a camera at the airport,” Mocek told KOBTV 4 in Albuquerque.
Mocek was represented by Nancy Hollander, a New Mexico defense attorney known for representing two Guantanamo Bay detainees. Hollander argued that Mocek did not conceal his identity because his name was on his boarding pass.
Friday, December 10, 2010
High Crime Cameras in Seattle? Big Brother may start watching a lot more in the Emerald City. The Urban League has asked Seattle officials to install surveillance cameras throughout a high crime neighborhood.
James Kelly, CEO of the Urban League, says gang violence is out of control and the anti-snitching code among youth is hindering police efforts to catch the criminals. Kelly believes cameras can help, not only by deterring thugs but also by helping prosecute the criminals who continue wreaking havoc.
What's particularly interesting is that Kelly and the Urban League have been vocal critics of the Seattle P.D. They've blasted the department over several recent incidents involving alleged police brutality including a case where a young jaywalker ended up getting punched in the face after pushing an officer. Kelly now wants to give that same department the power to monitor residents' every move in the area...
Full-body scanners will soon be fully operational at Sea-Tac Airport despite worries about privacy, health effects and longer lines.
Traveling through Seattle-Tacoma Airport soon? Be prepared to remove your wallet, take off your watch and belt, empty your pockets and stand with your hands over your head while an X-ray machine scans for anything hidden under your clothing.
Fourteen full-body scanners will be installed at Sea-Tac security checkpoints with some fully operational within the next week, Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officials said Friday.
The machines, called "backscatter" devices, allow agents to see through clothes by scattering low-dose X-rays at a passenger's front and back. The X-rays produce a chalky, nude image that detects hidden metallic and nonmetallic items alike, such as plastic weapons and explosives...
SEATTLE -- Seattle police are investigating what they call an assault of an officer in South Seattle.
However, a police officer is seen punching a 17-year-old girl in the face during the incident captured by a video camera on Monday.
According to Seattle police, the incident began when an officer spotted a man jaywalking in the 3100 block of Martin Luther King, Jr. Way S. at approximately 3:10 p.m. The man was some 15 feet away from a pedestrian overpass, police said...
Seattle police are investigating what they call an assault of an officer in South Seattle on Monday. However, a police officer is seen punching a 17-year-old girl in the face during the incident captured by a cell phone camera.
SEATTLE -- City leaders expressed shock and disappointment Friday at video that first aired on KIRO 7 Eyewitness News showing two Seattle police officers kicking a man as he lay on the ground. The man was detained during a robbery investigation last month.
The two officers have been reassigned as police conduct an investigation amid a firestorm of reaction. And another controversy has arisen over why a Seattle TV station declined to air the video. [See Why Was Police Video Not Shown Earlier?]
The racially charged videotape shows officers stomping on the innocent detainee after they responded to several 911 calls for a report of an armed robbery in the parking lot of a night club near Lake Union.
In the video, a male officer is seen kicking the man who had been ordered to the ground while threatening him with racial slurs. Shortly after, a female officer kicked the man in the back of his leg...
tvnews0419—May 07, 2010 — The Seattle Police Department is conducting an internal investigation into an officer who allegedly roughed up an innocent detainee, and it was all caught on tape.
Seattle police detained three people including one Hispanic man in their hunt for possible armed robbery suspects. The video shows a man lying face down without handcuffs and not under arrest.
On the video, you can hear an officer telling the man: "You got me? I'm going to beat the (expletive) Mexican piss out of you homey. You feel me?"
Seconds later, the man moves his hand, appearing to wipe his eye. The officer allegedly kicks him in the head and wipes his boot on his hand. The video shows a female officer allegedly stomp on his leg.
Police realize they detained the wrong man, lift him up, and let him go.
In all fairness:
"Detective Shandy Cobane gave a tearful statement expressing remorse for not only his derogatory comments, but for shedding a negative light on the Seattle police department.
"At no time did I ever dream that I would do anything that would bring such negative notoriety to my department," Cobane said. "Sadly, I did."
A King County sheriff’s deputy kicks a 15-year-old girl, slams her to the floor of a jail cell, strikes her and pulls her hair in violence captured on videotape.
Prosecutors released the surveillance video Friday in the assault case against Deputy Paul Schene, who is accused of using excessive force on the girl. Schene, 31, pleaded not guilty to fourth-degree assault in Superior Court on Thursday.
The incident last November began after the girl was brought in for an auto theft investigation, according to court documents. The footage shows the attack beginning after the girl enters the cell at suburban SeaTac City Hall and kicks off one of her shoes toward the deputy.
“We believe this case is beyond just police misconduct, it’s criminal misconduct,” King County Prosecutor Daniel Satterberg said. “This is clearly excessive force.”
Schene was investigated previously for shooting two people — killing one — in the line of duty in 2002 and 2006. Both times his actions were found to be justified, said Ian Goodhew, prosecutor’s deputy chief of staff.
Calls by The Associated Press to Schene’s lawyer, Anne Bremner, were not immediately returned Friday. Bremner, however, released a statement to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer in which she said the video does not tell the whole story. Bremner had asked Judge Catherine Shaffer not to release the video to the media.
“As we argued to the judge, it will inflame public opinion and will severely impact the deputy’s right to a fair trial,” Bremner said.
In the video, a deputy kicks the girl, pushing her back toward the wall. The deputy then strongly backs the girl against the wall and slams her to the floor by grabbing her hair. A second deputy enters the holding cell, while the first deputy holds the girl face down to the floor. The first deputy appears to hit the girl with his hands. The girl is then lifted up and led out of the cell while the first deputy holds her hair...
SEATTLE -- The mother of a Ballard High School student is fuming after the health center on campus helped facilitate her daughter's abortion during school hours.
The mother, whom KOMO News has chosen to identify only as "Jill," says the clinic kept the information "confidential."
When she signed a consent form, Jill figured it meant her 15 year old could go to the Ballard Teen Health Center located inside the high school for an earache, a sports physical, even birth control, but not for help terminating a pregnancy.
"She took a pregnancy test at school at the teen health center," she said. "Nowhere in this paperwork does it mention abortion or facilitating abortion."
Jill says her daughter, a pro-life advocate, was given a pass, put in a taxi and sent off to have an abortion during school hours all without her family knowing.
"We had no idea this was being facilitated on campus," said Jill. "They just told her that if she concealed it from her family, that it would be free of charge and no financial responsibility."
The Seattle School District says it doesn't run the health clinics at high schools. Swedish Medical Center runs the clinic at Ballard High and protects the students' privacy.
T.J. Cosgrove of the King County Health Department, which administers the school-based programs for the health department, says it's always best if parents are involved in their children's health care, but don't always have a say.
"At any age in the state of Washington, an individual can consent to a termination of pregnancy," he said.
But Jill says she not only didn't have a say in her daughter's abortion, but also didn't know about it.
"Makes me feel like my rights were completely stripped away."
