OLYMPIC NATIONAL PARK — Four Olympic National Park rangers assigned to help in the effort to track down a killer at Mount Rainier National Park have returned to their posts, while others are standing guard over a fellow ranger’s body.
Olympic rangers are taking turns standing in the honor guard of the body of Margaret K. Anderson, a 34-year-old Mount Rainier National Park ranger and mother of two who was shot and killed Sunday.
They joined the guard at the Pierce County medical examiners office and will also do so after Anderson’s body is transferred to a funeral home, said Olympic National Park spokeswoman Barb Maynes on Wednesday.
Of the four rangers, one, Sanny Lustig, was selected by park staff to share her experiences on behalf of the other three who the park declined to name.
Lustig was on duty at Hurricane Ridge early Sunday afternoon when she was called by the park dispatcher to report for special duty to join three other ONP rangers to assist in park control and the manhunt at Mount Rainier.
“It was very intense. Everyone was very, very focused,” Lustig said.
The Park Service is a very small agency, and the members of the agency are very close-knit, Maynes said.
Anderson never served at ONP, but because of their proximity, staff at the two parks work together a lot, Maynes said.
The four rangers who were selected to assist at their sister park were chosen for their training in emergency response and skill in winter operations, Maynes said.
When she arrived at Mount Rainier, Lustig, who is a fully accredited law enforcement officer, was put on escort duty, an armed guard for unarmed officials traveling into and out of the park, she said.
Meanwhile, law enforcement teams from the Park Service, State Police, FBI, and local county and city agencies hunted for shooting suspect Benjamin Colton Barnes, 24.
“It was already functioning very well,” Lustig said.
Then, late Sunday, Lustig was selected as a member of the U.S. Park Service escort for Anderson’s remains, as they were taken from the park to the medical examiner’s office.
The procession began with the park service escort and quickly grew, with officers from agencies who responded to the park and from agencies along the way joining the line of police vehicles until Lustig could no longer see the end.
Lustig said that law enforcement and fire department vehicles lined the way, and officers and firefighters saluted as the vehicle carryng Anderson’s body passed by.
“One fire department had their ladder trucks up, with flags raised,” Lustig said.
“It was an amazing show of spontaneous respect from firefighters and law enforcement,” she added.
“It was amazing to see that come together that fast on that scale.”
On Monday, Lustig returned to the park, this time as an escort for officers who responded to the fatal shooting and manhunt for a cop killer.
“Barnes had already shot at law enforcement. They were a target,” she said.
Then word came down that Barnes’ body had been found.
“There was a lot of relief that no one else was going to be hurt by him,” Lustig said.
Lustig returned to her own station at Hurricane Ridge on Tuesday, again a lone law enforcement officer on a high, remote mountain.
“We are law enforcement officers, we are always very aware of the potential that situations may not be what they seem at first,” Lustig said of the job.
Rangers are expected to be helpful and friendly, and people often forget that they are also law enforcement and are always prepared for bad situations.
“In the parks it happens less frequently, but it can happen anywhere,” Lustig said.
“We have the same level of awareness as any law enforcement, in some ways even more aware” she said.
Rangers don’t have the same level of backup, and Lustig said response times for backup to arrive is often slow
The killing brought back memories of the killing of U.S. Forest Service Officer Kristine Fairbanks in a campground south of Sequim in September 2008.
The 51-year-old wife and mother from Forks was fatally shot after she stopped a suspicious van in the Dungeness Forks campground about six miles south of Sequim .
Shawn Roe, 36, of Everett, who authorities believed to be the shooter was killed in a shootout with Clallam County deputies later that night.
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Reporter Arwyn Rice can be reached at 360-417-3535 or at arwyn.rice@peninsuladailynews.com.
Managing Editor/News Leah Leach contributed to this report.
