New Year marred by wild West crime sprees

By Andy Goldberg Jan 2, 2012, 22:47 GMT

Los Angeles - A spate of gruesome crimes including mass murders and the gunning down of a ranger in one of America's signature national parks has marred the start of the new year on the US West Coast.

In the upscale San Diego island enclave of Coronado, four people were found dead when police arrived at an apartment just two hours into the new year to investigate reports of gunshots.

The small island is also home to a naval base that trains elite Navy SEAL special forces and other personnel. Media speculation was that the killings were a murder-suicide, because police said they were not looking for any suspects in the case.

Two men and two women were found dead inside the house, including a brother and sister and two military personnel, the Los Angeles Times reported.

A huge manhunt took place some 1,700 kilometeres to the north after a man shot and killed park ranger Margaret Anderson, a 34-year-old mother of two, at Mount Ranier National Park in Washington State.

The suspected gunman was named as Benjamin Colton Barnes, 24, an Iraq war veteran who is believed to be suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. Police said that the suspect was skilled in survival techniques and that they had recovered his vehicle containing weapons, body armour and survival gear.

Police on Monday said they had found a body face down in the snow matching the suspect's description.

Police had been looking for Colton Barnes since early Sunday, after he had been identified as a suspect in a New Year's Eve party attack in Seattle, in which four people had been shot, with two suffering critical wounds.

Anderson had been manning a roadblock, which was set up when a vehicle blasted through a police checkpoint set up near the entrance of the park to ensure that cars were carrying snow chains. The suspect started shooting as he approached Anderson, killing her on the spot. He continued shooting for over an hour, preventing medics from reaching the dying ranger, before fleeing through the snow on foot. Police evacuated all visitors from the park in armed convoys.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, whose department manages the national park system, said that he was 'deeply saddened by the tragic, horrific and cowardly murder ... at Mount Rainier.'

Police in Los Angeles, meanwhile, arrested a suspect Monday in a spate of arsons that saw 55 fires set around Los Angeles since Friday, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Few details were available about the man except that he was a German native driving a minivan with Canadian licence plates, the report said. The report said he may have been involved in a conflict with authorities over an immigration issue.

Most of the fires were started in parked cars, and some subsequently spread to garages and apartment buildings, and police believe they are all the work of one person.

Fire-starting materials were found in the vehicle of the suspect, the report said. Several sources were quoted as saying that the man is believed to be the same person seen on a surveillance video released by police on Sunday. But a Los Angeles fire official stressed that 'it is too early to speculate if this person is responsible for the spree of arson fires.'