Authorities say the man who tried to do this mass shooting In Yellowstone National Park Prosecutors said in court documents that he had spewed racist views months before the attempted attack last year.
In documents filed last week in U.S. District Court in Wyoming, federal prosecutors said 28-year-old Samson Fussner planned a possible mass shooting in what they called a “terrorist attack” and told his brother about his plans.
According to court documents, Feusner spoke about his mental health issues, racist views and planning a mass shooting in an employee dining room and at a fireworks display in West Yellowstone, Montana.
Prosecutors said in the documents that Fussner had a history of expressing white supremacist and anti-Semitic views and was an active member of a website dedicated to those views. Prosecutors filed documents in an effort to have the government seize Fassner's weapons, ammunition and SUV seized during the investigation.
The gunman had revealed his plan to commit violence to his brother a few days ago die in crossfire with park rangers, according to court documents. Prosecutors said he complained about Yellowstone to his brother in text messages, used racial slurs to describe people there and called the park a “scene from hell,” according to the documents. According to the National Park Service, Fussner worked for a private business that was authorized to operate in Yellowstone.
According to documents, Fussner also texted his brother that he was obsessed with a woman at the park, whom he would later take hostage before a shootout with park rangers.
According to the documents, for approximately two hours on the night of July 3, Fussner, armed with a handgun and a knife, held the unidentified woman hostage in her dorm room after she told him she was not interested in him.
Just before midnight, Fussner hid the gun when the woman's roommate came inside, according to documents. When the roommate went to take a shower, he left, and the woman alerted security officers at the private business that employed Fussner.
Law enforcement rangers with the Park Service cordoned off the area around the dormitory and employee dining hall, officials said. Fussner opened fire after being spotted coming out of a wooded area on the morning of July 4, and the Rangers returned fire.