Gunman killed by Yellowstone rangers had planned July 4 mass shooting, park reveals

CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — The warning from a woman in Yellowstone National Park came in just after midnight on July Fourth: She’d just been held at gunpoint by a man who said he planned to carry out a mass shooting — a random attack common in the U.S. these days but not in the Yellowstone region, let alone the park itself.

Rangers spent the next several hours trying to find the gunman before he showed up outside a dining area with 200 people inside. He shot a barrage of bullets with a semi-automatic rifle at a service entrance.

The rangers — including one who was wounded — shot back. Their rounds hit the attacker, Samson Lucas Bariah Fussner, 28, of Milton, Florida, who died at the scene in the busy Canyon Village tourist lodge area near the scenic Grand Canyon of Yellowstone.

The previously unreleased details provided by park officials Tuesday revealed a harrowing situation that seemingly could have ended badly and raised new questions about the attacker’s intent and motivations.

Fussner’s Facebook page showed if anything pride about landing a concession job in Yellowstone, a typically seasonal gig that often involves cooking and serving food to the park’s 3 million summer visitors. Such jobs usually go to somewhat younger people in their early 20s; often they are college students who journey into the U.S. from a variety of other countries.

Fussner posted a photo of his Xanterra Parks and Resorts badge and photos of him in snowy Yellowstone scenes from mid-May, at the onset of summer tourist season. There are no posts hinting at anger or any other motivation for the shooting.

And while Yellowstone often draws headlines for sometimes deadly mishaps involving wildlife and the park’s famous hot springs, shootings — despite the park’s millions of visitors and high rate of gun ownership in the region — are exceedingly rare. No attack like this one has happened in the park in recent memory.

The wounded ranger was released from a hospital but not identified. The shooting led authorities to close off Canyon Lodge, a complex of hotel rooms, cabins and dining facilities, until Wednesday.

The facilities are run by Xanterra Parks and Resorts, the main concessionaire for such