Hours before a gunman opened fire at an entrance to a Yellowstone National Park employee dining hall, injuring one ranger, authorities had been warned he planned to carry out a mass shooting at the facility, officials said Thursday.
The revelation came as authorities released videos and other new details about the July 4 shooting in which rangers stationed to protect the facility at Canyon Village killed Samson Lucas Bariah Fussner, 28, of Milton, Florida, after he opened fire with a semiautomatic rifle.
Authorities had been looking for Fussner for hours before the shooting after a security guard called 911 just after midnight on July 4, saying that Fussner had just held a woman hostage and told her he was going to attack the employee dining hall.
The videos from park rangers’ body-worn cameras show a chaotic scene during and right after the shootout in the world’s first national park, a place millions of people enjoy every year for its wild nature and tranquility. In one video, a ranger is seen firing toward Fussner from inside a vehicle access door in the building.
In another video, a different ranger outside the building approaches the wounded Fussner as he lay still on the ground, dressed