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Authorities were warned that gunman was planning to attack Yellowstone facility on July 4th

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Hours before a gunman opened fire at an entrance to a Yellowstone National Park employee dining hall, injuring one ranger, authorities had been warned he planned to carry out a mass shooting at the facility, officials said Thursday.

The revelation came as authorities released videos and other new details about the July 4 shooting in which rangers stationed to protect the facility at Canyon Village killed Samson Lucas Bariah Fussner, 28, of Milton, Florida, after he opened fire with a semiautomatic rifle.

Authorities had been looking for Fussner for hours before the shooting after a security guard called 911 just after midnight on July 4, saying that Fussner had just held a woman hostage and told her he was going to attack the employee dining hall.

The videos from park rangers’ body-worn cameras show a chaotic scene during and right after the shootout in the world’s first national park, a place millions of people enjoy every year for its wild nature and tranquility. In one video, a ranger is seen firing toward Fussner from inside a vehicle access door in the building.

In another video, a different ranger outside the building approaches the wounded Fussner as he lay still on the ground, dressed in black and with one hand raised upward at the elbow. Fussner remains motionless as the ranger takes his semiautomatic rifle, unclipping it from a strap.

Fussner also was armed with a semiautomatic pistol, according to park officials.

Body-camera footage shows a third ranger running to the scene from in between nearby employee dormitories, yelling to unseen people: “Get back in your dorms!” As the ranger runs, a dozen gunshots are heard.

“Stay down! Stay down!” the ranger shouts to two people crouching behind the front wheel of an SUV. Authorities blurred out the faces of all people in the videos, shielding their identities.

As the ranger approaches the corner of a building, two other rangers stand with rifles pointed and somebody yells: “Suspect’s down, he’s not moving!”

Inside the back entrance where the gunman attacked, photos showed at least 18 bullet holes in the walls. There, the first ranger to trade fire with Fussner was wounded in a “lower extremity,” according to park officials.

Footage shows rangers approaching their wounded colleague sitting in a concrete stairwell landing.

“You all right?” someone asks.

“Yeah, I’m good,” the ranger responds, flashing a thumbs-up.

Medical workers tried to help Fussner but a doctor pronounced him dead, according to park officials.

Besides Fussner, the ranger was the only person physically hurt that day in an area crowded with some 200 park concession workers and visitors. The ranger was treated at a hospital and released within a few days, according to park officials.

Park officials have not identified the rangers involved in the confrontation, including the five at the shooting scene. Of the five, four activated their body-worn video cameras during and soon after the gunfire.

National Park Service policy requires rangers to activate their cameras whenever they begin making contact with somebody “except when faced with an emergency situation requiring immediate action to preserve life or safety,” according to a National Park Service narrative accompanying Thursday’s edited sequence of body camera video, a recording of the initial 911 call, photos and diagrams of the scene.

The shooting led authorities to close off Canyon Lodge, a complex of hotel rooms, cabins and dining facilities, for several days. The facilities are run by Yellowstone’s main tourism concessionaire, Xanterra Parks and Resorts, where Fussner had been working for the summer season.

Park rangers had been looking for Fussner for hours before the shooting. Late on July 3, Fussner held another concessionaire worker against her will with a gun and knife at her residence in Canyon Village.

Early on July 4, the woman reported that Fussner threatened to kill her and others, including carrying out a mass shooting at Independence Day events outside the park, park officials said in a statement five days after the shooting.

On Thursday, the text and voiceover narrative added that Fussner told the woman he planned to carry out mass shootings at the employee dining room as well as July 4 events outside the park. Officials have not said whether Fussner had released the woman or whether she had escaped.

Yellowstone officials didn’t immediately respond to an email Thursday asking why they didn’t previously disclose that Fussner told the woman he planned a mass shooting at the dining room.

The incident remains under investigation by the FBI and authorities have not yet cleared rangers of wrongdoing in the confrontation. Not all materials related to the confrontation have been released.

The FBI did not immediately respond Thursday if anyone besides park rangers witnessed the shooting.

After receiving a 911 call just after midnight on July 4 that Fussner had taken the woman hostage, rangers found Fussner’s vehicle but not him. Inside, they found a handgun.

The subsequent overnight search for Fussner involved more than 20 law enforcement rangers, including a park special response team. Around 8 a.m. the next morning, Fussner approached the dining facility service entrance and opened fire.

Fussner’s Facebook page suggested he was proud about landing a concession job in Yellowstone, a typically seasonal gig that often involves cooking and serving food to the park’s 3 million summer visitors. Such jobs usually go to somewhat younger people in their early 20s; often they are college students visiting from other countries.

Fussner posted a photo of his Xanterra Parks and Resorts badge and photos of him in snowy Yellowstone scenes from mid-May. The posts did not hint at anger or other motivation.

Yellowstone often draws headlines for sometimes deadly mishaps involving wildlife and the park’s famous hot springs. But shootings – despite the park’s millions of visitors and high rate of gun ownership in the region – are rare.



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Harris, Oprah hold Michigan campaign event in talk show format

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Using a similar format to her former long-running talk show, Oprah Winfrey hosted a campaign event with Vice President Kamala Harris in suburban Detroit Thursday evening which featured a mix of celebrities, campaign organizers and a crowd of battleground state voters. 

The event in Farmington Hills, Michigan — which had an in-person crowd of a few hundred and also featured virtual attendees — opened with talk of a “new day” and the sense of “joy” Democrats have associated with the Harris campaign. But the conversation later steered towards issues featuring personal, intimate stories of people impacted by state abortion bans and school shootings. 

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Vice President Kamala Harris and Oprah Winfrey at a campaign event in Farmington Hills, Michigan, on Sept. 19, 2024.

SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images


The parents of Natalie Griffith, a 15-year-old injured in the deadly Apalachee High School shooting earlier this month in Winder, Georgia, spoke. Griffith’s mother, Marilda, made an emotional plea for a “change to be made” to address gun violence. Her father, Doug — who noted that he was not a registered Democrat — called for metal detectors to be placed inside schools. 

Harris did not explicitly say if she agreed with the call for metal detectors, but said “we just need to apply common sense.” She repeated her calls for an assault weapons ban and universal background checks. When Winfrey made note of Harris being a gun owner, as she revealed in prior campaigns and repeated in her debate with Trump, Harris said that “if somebody breaks into my house, they’re getting shot.”

“Sorry, probably should not have said that,” Harris joked. “My staff will deal with that later.” 

The mother and sisters of Amber Thurman — a Georgia woman who died in 2022 after medical care was delayed due to the state’s abortion ban — also spoke for the first time publicly since the ProPublica report about Thurman was released. 

“I’m beyond hurt, disappointed…we trusted them to take care of her, you know?” said CJ, Thurman’s sister. “And they just let her die because of some stupid abortion ban. They treated her like she was just another number.” 

Harris called Thurman’s death “preventable,” and as she has throughout her campaign and vice presidency, blamed former President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court appointments for leading to the overturning of Roe v. Wade. She also criticized states with abortion restrictions but have exceptions “to save the life of the mother,” arguing it should not reach that point.

“So is she on death’s door before you actually decide to give her help, Is that what we’re saying?” Harris asked. “Like, literally, a doctor or a nurse has to say, ‘She might die any minute, better give her care.'”

Hadley Duvall, a Kentucky woman who was impregnated by her father at 12-years-old and was able to get an abortion, also spoke. Duvall had been featured in several of Harris’ campaign ads, and also spoke at the Democratic National Convention. 

The event was livestreamed and conducted in an interview-style discussion similar to Winfrey’s old talk show. It was billed as a way to bring together many pro-Harris coalitions, including “Win with Black Women,”  “White Dudes for Harris” and “Swifties for Harris.” 

All are groups that have been holding Zoom conference calls to raise money for Harris’ campaign and mobilize voters. Harris campaign advisers saw the event as a way to reach persuadable voters, and Winfrey often structured her questions to be geared towards undecided voters. 

Several celebrities also appeared by video, including Ben Stiller, Chris Rock, Jennifer Lopez, Julie Roberts, Tracee Ellis Ross, Bryan Cranston and Meryl Streep. 

Earlier Thursday, Republican National Committee Chair Michael Whatley panned the event, saying in a statement that Harris was campaigning with “an out-of-touch celebrity, further confirming that the Democrat party is not the party of hardworking Americans – it is the party of elitists.”

Streep asked Harris what her plan would be if she wins in November and there is another push to try and overturn the election results, as Trump and some Republicans are criminally charged with allegedly doing in 2020. 

“We will be ready,” Harris said, pointing to Republicans disaffected by the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection that may vote for her. “To try and upend a free and fair election where the American people voted, that was a bridge too far for a lot of people…I think there is absolutely no tolerance whatsoever from the vast majority of Americans for that, and they’ve seen the lies.”

Harris made a quick reference to her campaign’s legal team, and pleaded for the audience to help curb misinformation and support poll workers. 

Winfrey, an independent who has endorsed Harris and spoke at the DNC last month, closed the program with a call to undecided voters to choose Harris.

“This is the moment for people who are tired of all of the bickering and all of the name calling, people who are exhausted by the craziness and the made up stories and the conspiracies. This is the moment you want to get on with your life, because you know that we can do better and that we deserve better.”



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CBS News joins volunteers searching for missing migrants on dangerous path

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CBS News joins volunteers searching for missing migrants on dangerous path – CBS News


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Nearly 11,000 migrants have died trying to cross the U.S.-Mexico border since 1998, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Volunteers, who call themselves “Armadillos,” are searching for those missing in one of the deadliest parts of the border. CBS News immigration and politics reporter Camilo Montoya-Galvez joined volunteers in the Arizona search.

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Judge shot and killed at Kentucky courthouse

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Judge shot and killed at Kentucky courthouse – CBS News


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Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear confirmed that a county district judge was shot and killed in his chambers Thursday in Letcher County. Authorities said a local sheriff was arrested at the scene. The identity of the judge was not immediately available.

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