Xanterra Worker Arrested For Mass Shooting Threat Day After Fatal Yellowstone Shootout

One day after a fatal Fourth of July shootout in a tourist hub within Yellowstone National Park, a worker in a nearby park village allegedly threatened a second shooting.

Robert Sherman, 55, an employee of private concessionaire company Xanterra, which is contracted to offer services in Yellowstone National Park, is facing one count of disorderly conduct in the federal U.S. District Court for Wyoming. The charge, filed Monday, is punishable by up to six months in jail and up to $5,000 in fines.

He’s accused of making a threat to the effect that “the next mass shooting will be here,” while quarreling with a coworker at the Roosevelt Lodge on Friday, according to court documents.

Court documents say the incident happened the day after a shootout at Canyon Village less than 20 miles away in which another Xanterra employee, Samson Lucas Bariah Fussner, reportedly shot a ranger in the leg or foot before being shot to death himself in a shootout with park rangers.

Fussner also allegedly threatened a mass shooting possibly at a nearby fireworks show and also reportedly shot a semiautomatic weapon in the direction of a Canyon Village dining hall before being killed.

Evacuating

U.S. Park Rangers Dean Hill, Ray Drutis and Lili Flowers received a report Monday that a Xanterra employee had said, “The next mass shooting will be here,” according to an affidavit filed in Sherman’s case, which Flowers wrote.

The rangers’ supervisor sent the three to Roosevelt Lodge to investigate.

Flowers learned the statements “may have been made a few days prior,” she wrote.

The Yellowstone Special Response Team, which a specialized policing unit, also responded at about 10:30 Monday morning. Meanwhile, Yellowstone’s dispatch center gathered more information about Sherman, including his photograph and reports that he allegedly made earlier comments about “killing two people.”

“We were instructed to respond in full rifle kit with long guns ready to the Lodge area immediately,” wrote Flowers.

Both the lodge and nearby area were evacuated.

At about 11:08 that morning, the three rangers arrived on scene to find the area shut down and the buildings surrounding Sherman’s cabin evacuated, the affidavit says. Rangers secured the area and ordered the occupants out of Sherman’s cabin.

They located Sherman, and a ranger detained him for questioning, taking him to the human resources office at Roosevelt Lodge, says the document.

Agents reviewed an email from the Roosevelt Lodge controller reporting an incident in the employee dining room Friday.

The location theme is familiar: The Canyon Village shootout had unfolded outside the employee dining room in that tourist hub.

Sherman got into a verbal altercation ending with Sherman leaving the employee dining room and making the ominous statement about the next mass shooting being there, the affidavit alleges.

The Interview

About 43 minutes after noon Monday, Sherman was told his Miranda rights and he agreed to speak with a special agent and another ranger, and he gave written and verbal consent for a search of his cabin and vehicle, says the document.

Sherman reportedly admitted there had been an incident in the dining room Friday. The affidavit says he went there for breakfast and got food from behind the line, though he knew he wasn’t supposed to do that.

One of the dining room employees confronted Sherman and reminded him of the rules, the latter recalled.

“If anything, I lost my cool,” Sherman reportedly told the rangers, adding that he threw his tray and on the way out said, “Maybe we should have a shooting down here as well,” the affidavit relates.

Flowers remarked on the untimeliness of the alleged comment.

“Sherman’s statement of ‘maybe we should have a shooting down here as well’ was made approximately 24 hours after a shooting incident occurred involving another Xanterra employee less than 20 miles away,” she wrote in the affidavit. “The (other) incident resulted in the shooting death of the employee and serious injury to a U.S. Park Ranger.”

Rangers searched Sherman’s vehicle and cabin, but found nothing of note, the affidavit says.

Sherman is scheduled for an initial hearing at 11 a.m. Wednesday. The prosecutor, Assistant U.S. Attorney Ariel C. Calmes, seeks to keep Sherman detained during the case.

In a Monday filing, Calmes asked U.S. Magistrate Judge Stephanie Hambrick to hold a detention hearing to that end. Calmes listed concerns Sherman could flee, obstruct justice or pose a risk to the community.

In the days following the Fourth of July shootout with Fussner, former top National Park Service officials have come out to say how the response by park rangers likely saved many lives.

Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.