Yellowstone releases body camera footage of officer-involved July 4 shootout

Yellowstone National Park officials on Friday released more than 20 minutes of descriptive video, including three officers' body cam footage, from a Fourth of July shootout with 28-year-old Samson Lucas Bariah Fussner at Canyon Village.

The shooting unfolded at around 8 a.m. when the Florida man armed with a semi-automatic rifle approached law enforcement rangers posted near a dining facility at Canyon Lodge. The video from chest-mounted cameras shows Fussner firing toward the service entrance.

The first body camera footage, from an agent identified as officer number two, begins about 10:30 minutes into the full video . It shows the right hand of an officer armed with an automatic rifle step into the Canyon Lodge loading bay and fire several rounds as the suspect, clad in what appears to be black clothing, rushes from left to right. No audio is present for the first 30 seconds.

Then the piercing wail of a fire alarm can be heard as another officer off-camera shouted, "Don't move!"

"Are you good?" officer two shouted to his colleague, who is not shown.

"I'm hit in my (redacted) but I'm all right," the injured man replied. The officer, who was wounded in a lower extremity, was later treated and released from an area hospital.

"Agent on the ground!" the officer calls out on his radio, his breath coming in heaving gasps.

He then turns to tell people on a nearby stairwell to leave.

"Hey, go upstairs move! You, go! Go!" he shouts, and then calls for emergency medical service.

The video is then played in slow motion.

The film goes on to explain that at about that time, officer number 3, whose body camera is not on, rounded the outside corner of the building and fired at Fussner.

"Fussner falls to the ground," the video narrator noted.

Officer two then retreats back through Canyon Lodge and onto the loading dock from a side door. From behind a dumpster, the officer provided cover as officer number four approaches Fussner. Jogging from near where officer number three fired, he called for cover before unclipping Fussner's rifle sling and moving the rifle behind another officer who is aiming at the fallen Fussner, a Milton, Florida, resident working in the park.

Officer four then ran back through the building, through the dining room and down a hall to check on the injured officer who is sitting in a stairwell.

"Are you alright?" he asked.

"Yeah, I'm good," the injured officer replied.

Again the video is slowed down to show officer four removing Fussner's rifle and noted: multiple magazines for the rifle were later found on Fussner along with a semi-automatic pistol.

Officer number five's video shows him jogging from the Grizzly Lodge toward Canyon Lodge as about a dozen shots can be heard in the background.

"Get back in your dorm," he shouted along the way. "Tell everyone to stay in the dorm!"

As he approaches Canyon Lodge, he yells at a couple crouched behind the front driver's side wheel of a station wagon to stay down. As he nears officer three, someone shouts that the suspect is down and not moving.

At the time of the incident, the dining room was occupied by about 200 people.

More than 20 Park Service law enforcement rangers, including the park's special response team, had been dispatched to Canyon Village early on July 4 after a woman called 911.

The video includes a recording of a female Xanterra security guard contacting the 911 communications center to report a woman was hiding with other people in a Grizzly Dorm bathroom.

When reached by park law enforcement, the victim said she had been held against her will by Fussner in a residence at Canyon Village.

According to the video, Fussner "allegedly came to the employee's residence in Canyon Village armed with a knife and handgun."

The woman also reported to law enforcement rangers that Fussner threatened to kill her as well as others the following day at the employee dining room, according to the video and Park Service reports. Fussner's threats also allegedly included a mass shooting(s) at July 4th events outside the park.

While searching for Fussner, officers found his unoccupied and unlocked car in the main Canyon Lodge parking lot with a handgun near the center console.

"At 8:05 a.m. Fussner emerged from the woods with a semi-automatic rifle and encountered an NPS law enforcement officer near the Canyon Lodge," the video narrator said. "Fussner fired at officer number three; note, officers number one through number three are numbered in the order they fired at Fussner.

"After shooting at officer number three, Fussner moved directly toward the loading dock firing through the doorway into the hall at officer number one.

"Officer number one returned fire and was shot by Fussner during this exchange. Officer number two could not return fire due to officer two's position in the hall."

The video then shows the view from inside the hall looking out to the loading dock. "Investigators documented multiple entry and exit holes from gunfire," the video noted.

Opposite that image, to the right, is a photo showing the interior wall behind officer one's location. "Many bullets penetrated consecutive walls of the building when Fussner fired at Officer #1," the photo is captioned, with 11 holes identifiable.

Only three of the five officers present activated their body cameras. The officer who was wounded, officer one, did not have their camera on during the entire shooting. Officer two did not activate their camera until after officer one was shot, although it did capture them firing at Fussner. Officer three did not turn on their camera until after the shooting, although it shows them firing at Fussner. Officer four did not activate their camera until after the shooting. Officer five activated their camera after hearing the sounds of gunfire and running towards the shootout.

Park policy is to activate the cameras prior to "contact with individuals, except when faced with an emergency situation requiring immediate action to preserve life or safety."

Following the shootout, Cowboy State Daily interviewed Fussner's mother. She said investigators told her the hostage reported "Lucas said he wanted to go to the dining hall in Canyon Village and 'shoot Jew-babies.'"

Following the report to authorities, an alert was sent to surrounding law enforcement agencies warning them to be on the lookout for Fussner, providing a description of his vehicle. A recording of the warning was posted on Facebook.

The Park Service press release did not indicate how long the delay was between the officers' arrival and the shootout.

The incident is still being investigated by the FBI. Fussner was a Xanterra Parks and Resorts employee. The company provides concession services such as retail, camping, food and lodging inside Yellowstone.

Less than a week later, another concession employee at Tower-Roosevelt village was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct after being disciplined for an error and responding by commenting the area should be the site of the next park shooting.

The July 4 Yellowstone shooting was the 120th officer-involved shooting in National Park Service history, according to NPS Ranger News. The first officer-involved shooting in Yellowstone came sometime between 1916 and 1920 when former Chief Scout Jim McBride was shot by a poacher, Ranger News reported.

Violent crime is rare in Yellowstone Park. In 1997, in the Frog Rock area 6 miles east of Mammoth, there was a murder-suicide involving a 69-year-old Idaho mother and the shooter, her 48-year-old son. The pair had been on the lam following a check fraud and auto theft scheme, according to the Cowboy State Daily.

In 1985, near Old Faithful, a 22-year-old park employee was beaten to death by a co-worker. In 1978, in the Boiling River area north of Mammoth Hot Springs, a California 17-year-old was shot dead by a man he was traveling with.