Gunman who was killed by Yellowstone rangers had planned a July 4 mass shooting, park reveals

By MEAD GRUVER

Associated Press

CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — The warning from a woman in Yellowstone National Park came in just after midnight on July Fourth: She’d just been held at gunpoint by a man who said he planned to carry out a mass shooting — a random attack common in the U.S. these days but not in the Yellowstone region, let alone the park itself.

Rangers spent the next several hours trying to find the gunman before he showed up outside a dining area with 200 people inside. He shot a barrage of bullets with a semi-automatic rifle at a service entrance.

The rangers — including one who was wo...