Yellowstone National Park released video from park rangers’ body-worn cameras Thursday that shows the July 4 gunfight that killed Samson Fussner, a concession employee who was advancing with a semi-automatic rifle toward the center of tourist-thick Canyon Village.
The video clips show one ranger firing at Fussner from inside the employee dining room building, through a doorway and onto a loading dock.
Another clip shows the same ranger on the loading dock after Fussner was shot down, just feet from an entry to the building. Other footage shows rangers removing the semi-automatic rifle from Fussner’s body as he lay, unmoving, in the loading dock area. Authorities say they also found a semi-automatic pistol on him.
Still more clips show another ranger running toward the sound of gunfire from nearby, rounding a corner and aiming toward the loading dock and Fussner.
A last clip shows an armed officer running through the building searching for a ranger who had been wounded in the leg during the gunfight. The video shows the officer arriving at a stairway landing where other rangers were tending to the ranger who appeared, despite being wounded, at ease.
“Yea, I’m good,” he says in response to questions about his condition.
A Yellowstone ranger takes the semi-automatic rifle from the body of Samson Fussner after he was shot by rangers at the door to an employee dining hall at Canyon Village on July 4. (Yellowstone National Park)
The wounded ranger sustained a gunshot wound to a “lower extremity” and was treated at an unnamed medical facility, according to the National Park Service.
The video clips are part of a 20 minute National Park Service community briefing video that lays out the July 4 incident with statements, maps and a detailed description of the movements and positions of four officers who fired during the incident. Some of the officers involved had not activated their cameras, and in other clips there is no audio.
Rangers had been searching for Fussner after another employee reported he was planning a mass shooting. The individual had also reported Fussner came to the employee’s residence at Canyon Village armed with a knife and pistol.
This is a breaking news story. WyoFile will publish a more detailed account of the Park Service briefing in the near future.
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