HAPPY NEW YEAR to you all!
Welcome to our new Project 365, which is all about photos, stories, and other happenings in the last decade in honor of our 10th Year Anniversary!
Hope you enjoy and will join us on more great adventures.
Cheers!
DAY 1 – National Park Service Ranger Margaret A. Anderson
PIERCE COUNTY, Washington
On January 1, 2012, we lost a great hero on this day on Mt. Rainier National Park when Park Ranger Margaret Anderson was killed in the Line-of-Duty in an attempt to stop a fleeing shooting suspect near the Longmire Ranger Station around 1030 hours PT.
He was heading up to the top of Paradise where there is a lodge, visitor’s center, and possibly hundreds of people as this is a very popular place.
She was unaware the suspect was wanted for a shooting incident that took place in the lowlands just a day before in how he shot four people.
Ranger Anderson had set up a roadblock to keep the suspect from reaching the top of the mountain to prevent loss of life.
As the suspect approached and reached her roadblock, he did a U-turn and then exited his vehicle. He would open fire upon her marked Park Service vehicle.
She was hit before she could exit her marked patrol car. After she was shot, she radioed her Dispatch Center for assistance. The suspect who remained on scene kept responding Officers at a distance, while continuously shooting at them for 90 minutes.
He would later flee the scene. Multiple Federal, State, County, and City law enforcement agencies gathered, methodically searched for the suspect from ground and air.
His body would be found in frigid water and snow the following next day, about six miles from the original shooting scene.
Ranger Anderson is survived by her husband and two children. She worked for the National Park Service for 12 years.
Park Ranger Anderson saved possibly hundreds of lives and we will be forever grateful for the life-saving measures she took that day. We will remember her, her family, and those who serve every day in this profession. Never Forgotten. – Ed.
(c) 2022 NW Fire Blog – Published 1/1/2022 2235 PT
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