Flashlights, dark cited in '17 death of Arkansas camper; ranger-shooting inquiry wraps up

Tire tracks from Jonathan Bolger’s pickup are seen at his campsite at Spring Creek Campground in this National Park Service image taken Aug. 20, 2017, after Bolger was shot by a park ranger. Bolger had driven off in a rage earlier, then returned and apologized, his girlfriend said.
Tire tracks from Jonathan Bolger’s pickup are seen at his campsite at Spring Creek Campground in this National Park Service image taken Aug. 20, 2017, after Bolger was shot by a park ranger. Bolger had driven off in a rage earlier, then returned and apologized, his girlfriend said.

HARRISON -- Jonathan Bolger was blinded by flashlights in the darkness of his campsite on the Buffalo National River, his girlfriend told police.

A park ranger said drop your gun.

Bolger said show me your badge.

They repeated the exchange.

Then Bolger turned quickly to his left, toward the door of his pickup, and the ranger fired four shots from his .40-caliber pistol, hitting Bolger three times.

Bolger, 34, of Branson, died on Aug. 20 last year at Spring Creek Campground in Searcy County.

His girlfriend, Ashley Santoro, a nurse, administered CPR, as did emergency personnel when they arrived, but it was no use.

After the shooting, park rangers discovered that Bolger had a BB gun in his hand. He had it to fend off a large raccoon the couple had encountered on a previous trip to the campground, Santoro told police.

"I understand, you know, if the cops felt threatened," Santoro told Sgt. Ted Jones of the Arkansas State Police four hours after the shooting. "You know, I get it. And John, he couldn't see them. All he saw was flashlights."

A federal investigation into the shooting ended Wednesday with no charges filed against the ranger. A news release from U.S. Attorney Duane Kees said there was "insufficient evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the rangers used excessive force or violated federal laws under the circumstances."

An Arkansas prosecutor announced in January that he wouldn't file state charges in the case.

Few details about the shooting had been revealed while it was under investigation.

Two rangers were at the campsite during the shooting. Only one fired shots. They have not been identified, in accordance with National Park Service policy.

There have been seven officer-involved shootings by National Park Service rangers over the past 10 years. Three people died in those shootings, including Bolger, said Alexandra Picavet, chief of communications for the National Park Service's Midwest Region office in Omaha, Neb. The United States has 417 national parks with more than 300 million visitors a year.

The Spring Creek Campground is 3 miles down a dirt road, and there is no artificial light in that area, said Ellen F. Paxton, the case agent with the National Park Service who led the shooting investigation.

She said both rangers were in uniform and wearing badges on their chests. One ranger's badge was metal. The other, a trainee, had a gold-colored badge patch sewn onto his shirt.

The veteran ranger fired the shots, Picavet said. Video from his body camera shows Bolger standing with his back to the driver's-side door of his silver Ford pickup. A Umarex air pistol is in his left hand, pointing down, but the rangers didn't know it was a BB gun at that point, Paxton said.

In the video, Bolger can be seen raising his right arm. Then he quickly moves his right hand down and across his body as he turns to the left toward the truck.

Bolger was apparently reaching for the truck door, Picavet said. The ranger considered it a sudden, threatening move and fired his pistol, she said.

The veteran ranger had seen a gun in Bolger's hand, but in the tense moments before the shooting he didn't remember which hand, said Picavet. If the gun was in Bolger's right hand, it could appear he's turning to fire at the ranger who was holding him at gunpoint.

The officer who fired the shots didn't even see Bolger's truck until after the shooting, Paxton said.

"That's the power of tunnel vision," she said.

Santoro told Jones the flashlights were so bright that all she could see was the brown pants of the two rangers who arrived at the campsite at 1:34 a.m.

"You could barely see their feet because ... their lights were so bright," Santoro said. "They didn't look like cops. They didn't look like anybody. They just looked like people with flashlights."

Paxton said the rangers identified themselves as police.

And Bolger shined his flashlight on the rangers first, said Picavet.

"Mr. Bolger had already illuminated the rangers," she said. "He had already seen their badges. They had their badges fully displayed."

Another pickup had come and gone earlier that night, making Bolger suspicious, Santoro told the Arkansas State Police.

Then the rangers stopped by on a routine check of the campground. They parked a couple of hundred feet away and walked along the roadway toward the campsite with their flashlights off, which is the normal procedure and is intended not to disturb sleeping campers, Paxton said.

"We saw the lights come down through the woods," Santoro told police. "And I told John, I said, 'Look, there's headlights coming down.' The truck stopped. There was no lights, there was no noise, there was nothing. So John had every reason to be worried."

Bolger told Santoro's three children to stay in their tent and be quiet. Then he turned on his flashlight, shining it on the officers.

The entire incident, from the time the rangers got out of their truck until they radioed that shots had been fired, was 2 minutes and 49 seconds, said Les Seago, assistant special agent in charge with the National Park Service.

Paxton said no weapons were found in Bolger's pickup.

Investigators said Bolger pointed the gun toward the rangers, but Santoro said he didn't.

"He never raised his gun the whole time," she told police. "He had it down by his side. ... All he asked him was to see his badge. That's all he wanted to do. But he didn't. I don't know why he just didn't drop it. I don't know."

"The rangers know what they saw, and they did see him point it toward them," Picavet said.

Paxton said the rangers were separated immediately after the shooting and interviewed. Both told the same story, she said.

The initial encounter isn't on the video. It doesn't show Bolger pointing a gun at the rangers.

The ranger turned on the body camera immediately after the shooting. The camera is always recording, even when it's off, Seago said. But only 30 seconds of video is stored in the buffer when the camera is off, and there is no audio with that, he said.

The body-camera video begins about 15 seconds before Bolger is shot. Investigators showed the first couple of minutes of the video to a reporter for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette on Thursday at the Buffalo National River headquarters in the John Paul Hammerschmidt Federal Building in Harrison. At the beginning, the video is hazy from condensation on the lens. A steady stream of white bug streaks can be seen in the flashlight beams.

As of Friday afternoon, the video had been provided only to David Ransin of Springfield, Mo., an attorney for the Bolger family.

"We now understand the rangers say when they first encountered John in the middle of the night, he was in his campsite, and they were walking in unannounced," Ransin said after watching the video. "They surprised each other, and John pointed a flashlight and the BB pistol at them but they did not shoot him. Instead, John dropped his flashlight and lowered the pistol with his left arm straight, pointing the pistol at the ground. John raised his right arm using his forearm to shield his eyes from the rangers' bright flashlights and stood very still. It was when John turned to open the driver's door of his pickup truck with his right hand that the ranger rapidly fired four rounds, three hitting John and one hitting the inside panel of his driver's door."

Ransin said the shot that killed Bolger entered below his right shoulder blade, cut through his lung and heart and lodged in his ribs.

"When John was shot, his back was turned toward the rangers and the BB pistol was pointed at the ground," Ransin said.

Santoro told police that Bolger had an online business making "fidgit spinners," which are toys that contain small ball bearings and are usually spun on fingertips. At the campsite, Santoro set up the tents while Bolger shot photographs of fidgit spinners in the bed of his pickup. Then it began to rain. Santoro told police Bolger was irritated about the rain and at her children.

Plus, he had been drinking, she said.

"When he gets drunk, he gets mean," Santoro told police. "I think everybody was in his line of fire for being yelled at."

The autopsy indicated Bolger's blood alcohol level was 0.127, Seago said. A blood alcohol level of 0.08 is considered intoxicated.

Santoro told police that Bolger threw everything off the picnic table in a fit of rage. He left in his truck, "spinning out" and creating deep ruts in the muddy campsite, Santoro said. Then he returned and apologized.

Seago said other nearby campers left the area after hearing the couple's arguments and becoming uncomfortable. That was hours before the shooting took place.

Paxton said there was no foot chase involving Bolger. The entire incident took place within his campsite.

photo

A map showing the location of Spring Creek Campground

Metro on 07/29/2018

Upcoming Events