Post by Woody Williams on Dec 18, 2007 11:30:03 GMT -5
Crime seeps into game wardens' turfs
- While patrolling the Peavine Mountain area, Nevada Department of Wildlife Game Warden Randy Lusetti uses binoculars to scan the area for hunting activity.
- Lusetti talks with Ron Lee about gun regulations on a routine stop near the Red Rock area North of Reno during muzzle load deer season.
- Lusetti inspects Lee's .50 caliber muzzle loader
By Jeff DeLong, USA TODAY
A Texas game warden for nearly five years, Justin Hurst was patrolling on his 34th birthday last March 17 when he got a call that a colleague was pursuing a suspected poacher.
Hurst responded and was killed by the bullets of an assault rifle. James Freeman of Wharton County, Texas, faces murder charges in connection with the killing.
The tragedy is an example of a disturbing national trend, say wildlife officials in Texas, California, Nevada, New York and Arkansas. A job many people associate with checking fishing licenses and deer tags increasingly involves dealing with armed criminals, drug labs — and violence.
No national statistics on assaults against game wardens are available, said Marion Hoffman, president of the North American Wildlife Enforcement Officers Association. But Hoffman, a New York environmental conservation officer, said wardens increasingly are finding themselves responding to crimes more often associated with urban police officers.
The dangers of the job were demonstrated again north of Oroville, Calif., on Oct. 8, when Game Warden Joshua Brennan shot and killed 39-year-old Bartyn Pitts after Pitts opened fire on him with a shotgun, Butte County District Attorney Michael Ramsey said.
The shooting occurred after Brennan, who was citing Pitts for an illegal fire, discovered Pitts was wanted on a felony warrant in Hawaii for distribution of methamphetamine, said Ramsey, who declared the shooting a justified homicide.
"Our wardens are often out alone … dealing with some very dangerous characters," said Steve Martarano, spokesman for the California Department of Fish and Game.
There was another example on Nov. 3. Arkansas Wildlife Officer Matt Flowers was wounded during a gunbattle with a suspected poacher at a park in North Little Rock, said Keith Stephens, spokesman for the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission.
Flowers, 29, was shot in the chest but was protected from serious injury by body armor, Stephens said. Flowers returned fire and wounded Phillip Kelley, 36, who faces attempted murder charges.
In Arkansas, wardens patrolling remote areas are more frequently coming across methamphetamine labs and the dangers that come with them, Stephens said.
"You never know what you're going to walk up on," Stephens said. "They'll be out walking in the most remote areas they could think of and they will find where someone's been cooking (meth)."
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger awarded medals of valor on Dec. 6 to two game wardens, John Nores and Adam Kavanagh, for risking their lives to save fellow warden Kyle Kroll, who was shot during an ambush on Aug. 5, 2005, as he assisted sheriff's deputies on a marijuana farm raid in Northern California, Martarano said.
In Nevada, where solitary wardens must sometimes patrol up to 10,000 square miles of remote terrain, an increasing number of the people they encounter are armed with assault weapons as opposed to conventional hunting firearms, said Warden Randy Lusetti of the Nevada Department of Wildlife.
"I have seen in the last several years a difference in the type of people we contact," Lusetti said. "I've had a number of situations where I thought things could have gone in a bad way."
Dave Patula, 58, a Nevada warden for 29 years, agrees.
"We've been very fortunate in this state we haven't had an officer shot," he said.
DeLong reports for the RenoGazette-Journal
www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-12-17-game-warden_N.htm?loc=interstitialskip
- While patrolling the Peavine Mountain area, Nevada Department of Wildlife Game Warden Randy Lusetti uses binoculars to scan the area for hunting activity. - Lusetti talks with Ron Lee about gun regulations on a routine stop near the Red Rock area North of Reno during muzzle load deer season. - Lusetti inspects Lee's .50 caliber muzzle loaderBy Jeff DeLong, USA TODAY
A Texas game warden for nearly five years, Justin Hurst was patrolling on his 34th birthday last March 17 when he got a call that a colleague was pursuing a suspected poacher.
Hurst responded and was killed by the bullets of an assault rifle. James Freeman of Wharton County, Texas, faces murder charges in connection with the killing.
The tragedy is an example of a disturbing national trend, say wildlife officials in Texas, California, Nevada, New York and Arkansas. A job many people associate with checking fishing licenses and deer tags increasingly involves dealing with armed criminals, drug labs — and violence.
No national statistics on assaults against game wardens are available, said Marion Hoffman, president of the North American Wildlife Enforcement Officers Association. But Hoffman, a New York environmental conservation officer, said wardens increasingly are finding themselves responding to crimes more often associated with urban police officers.
The dangers of the job were demonstrated again north of Oroville, Calif., on Oct. 8, when Game Warden Joshua Brennan shot and killed 39-year-old Bartyn Pitts after Pitts opened fire on him with a shotgun, Butte County District Attorney Michael Ramsey said.
The shooting occurred after Brennan, who was citing Pitts for an illegal fire, discovered Pitts was wanted on a felony warrant in Hawaii for distribution of methamphetamine, said Ramsey, who declared the shooting a justified homicide.
"Our wardens are often out alone … dealing with some very dangerous characters," said Steve Martarano, spokesman for the California Department of Fish and Game.
There was another example on Nov. 3. Arkansas Wildlife Officer Matt Flowers was wounded during a gunbattle with a suspected poacher at a park in North Little Rock, said Keith Stephens, spokesman for the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission.
Flowers, 29, was shot in the chest but was protected from serious injury by body armor, Stephens said. Flowers returned fire and wounded Phillip Kelley, 36, who faces attempted murder charges.
In Arkansas, wardens patrolling remote areas are more frequently coming across methamphetamine labs and the dangers that come with them, Stephens said.
"You never know what you're going to walk up on," Stephens said. "They'll be out walking in the most remote areas they could think of and they will find where someone's been cooking (meth)."
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger awarded medals of valor on Dec. 6 to two game wardens, John Nores and Adam Kavanagh, for risking their lives to save fellow warden Kyle Kroll, who was shot during an ambush on Aug. 5, 2005, as he assisted sheriff's deputies on a marijuana farm raid in Northern California, Martarano said.
In Nevada, where solitary wardens must sometimes patrol up to 10,000 square miles of remote terrain, an increasing number of the people they encounter are armed with assault weapons as opposed to conventional hunting firearms, said Warden Randy Lusetti of the Nevada Department of Wildlife.
"I have seen in the last several years a difference in the type of people we contact," Lusetti said. "I've had a number of situations where I thought things could have gone in a bad way."
Dave Patula, 58, a Nevada warden for 29 years, agrees.
"We've been very fortunate in this state we haven't had an officer shot," he said.
DeLong reports for the RenoGazette-Journal
www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-12-17-game-warden_N.htm?loc=interstitialskip