CA - Malibu Creek State Park Shooting, Tristan Beaudette, 35, 22 June 2018 *Arrest* #2

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margarita25 said:
"Law enforcement promised to maintain a highly visible presence to make sure visitors feel safe. Malibu Creek and other parks in the area, including Tapia and Point Mugu, are patrolled by a team of five rangers from the state parks department."
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Five rangers.

Malibu Creek State Park is over 8000 acres. Point Mugu is 14,000 acres including five miles of coastline.

It takes at least 30 minutes to travel between the two parks.

I don't know how five rangers can effectively patrol an area of this size.
 
passepartout said:
Five rangers.

Malibu Creek State Park is over 8000 acres. Point Mugu is 14,000 acres including five miles of coastline. It takes at least 30 minutes to travel between the two parks.

I don't know how five rangers can effectively patrol an area of this size.
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Truly effective patrolling of large or even midsize state parks is probably de facto impossible due to cost. Rather, law enforcement relies on some guiding principles for parks:

- Though many may visit a park, few visitors venture into the remote, or even relatively remote "back country" portions of parks so those areas only need token and occasional patrols. More frequently used areas, especially campsites, receive far more frequent patrols.

- Nip problems in the bud. Visitors are logged. I have also noticed that regulations prohibit long term camping, open consumption of alcohol, large 'n loud parties, badly thought out target shooting (all shooting is banned), casually coming and going at night etc.

- Public good will. The vast, overwhelming, number of visitors to most State Parks are not problem people, nor do they create environments that are attractive to criminals.

The bad news is that when crimes do occur, there are relatively few resources available.
 
Brainstorming said:
vets trained in expert marksmanship
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I don't believe that either the non fatal ("warm up / nerve up"?), nor the fatal shootings had indications of an experienced, let alone an expert marksman.

As a side note, very few military service members receive expert marksmanship training. This doubly so in non combat units.

Even amongst infantry combat units, team work wins small scale battles, not individual weapons skills. Thus, almost all units concentrate on team work development, rather than developing individuals to be expert level marksmen.

There are a few units that need to combine team work with individual expert weapons skill, or the nature of the position demands excellence (Special Forces, snipers, other close quarter combat teams etc), but only a very small percentage of the military are in these units.
 
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margarita25 said:
Something I learned in NOCO as a local is that there's all kiiiinds of things that don't make the news. I personally knew of someone having their windshield shot out which never made the news. Moo.

I was thinking about this earlier. I bet there are some other car shooting incidents we don't even know about. In fact I'd bet the farm on it. Question is, imo, are these related to Tristan. There's a fair chance they are not related, imo.



Additionally, and sorry if this has already been addressed, how far are the bathroom facilities? Guess I could look it up...I realize he was shot in his tent, was just thinking about possible encounters earlier in the day.
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The best place to see the restroom is in the photos of all the campsites. Link upthread.
 
OnYourLeft said:
Here is a new article from The Acorn with expanded details of James Rogers, the biologist’s birdshot shooting while sleeping in the hammock in Tapia Park on 11/3/2016 at 3:30am. The additional information is due to his girlfriend being interviewed for this article, so please read it. She says the rangers at MCSP advised them that 6 days after Rogers was shot, someone reported reported the spare wheel of their camper had been hit with birdshot:

Campground closed as investigation continues
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Nice find! The article gives us more info about the shooting 6 days after the biologist in Nov 2016.

@Gitana can you add this to your list?
The rangers told them that six days after Rogers was shot, someone reported the spare wheel of their camper had been hit with bird shot.
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Sounds juvenile to me.
 
Brainstorming said:
Cece Woods of The Local Malibu was not
aware of any shooting incident @MCSP
on the Monday following Tristan Beaudette's homicide since the park is
closed indefinitely. The Tesla incident was
on Monday June 18, 2018 @ 4am.
Click to expand...


The way the possible incident is described, the vehicle might not have been parked at the campground. It could have been parked along one of the roads to access the hiking trails. It differs in a critical way: the Tesla was in motion, not parked. The driver had to pull over. In the other possible incident, the driver returned to a parked car. I'm thinking that if the rumored car was parked along Las Virgenes, the same shot might have hit both vehicles.

I think we should add it to the list with the notation that it might be a mistake or a duplicate.

Random shots frequently don't get reported. We had a highway shooter not far from here a few years back (minor, a few broken windshields) and one thing I remember is that there were maybe three or four incidents reported to LE, but after the kid (about 14 if I recall) was arrested, a dozen or more people came forward with reports. People had just shrugged and said, "Wow, lucky we weren't killed." Several people seemed to think that mentioning it on Facebook constituted a report.

I recall something similar in a bunch of window shatterings in Texas, and in the Colorado incidents Margarita25 knows so well.

If we know of 7 to 9 incidents, I would assume at least twice that many took place.
 
margarita25 said:
Bringing fwd this quote from 6/26 article:

Authorities are still unsure if the shooting was intentional or random. No suspects have been identified.

"Beaudette’s brother, 37-year-old Dylan Beaudette, told Radar Online Monday that a second bullet tore through the top of Tristan’s tent, suggesting that the shooting may have been random in nature, and that the shooter was firing horizontally.

“It could’ve been someone firing from a nearby road,” Dylan told Radar Online. “We don’t know. But the only thing we do know, I think I know, it was the action of an irresponsible person who didn’t take time to think about what they were doing.”"

Investigators Stumped In Scientist's Mysterious Killing At Calabasas Campground

*it appears this was stated before Tristan's death was ruled a homicide.
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That would still be a homicide though. If someone was haphazardly shooting from the road.

This isn't a precise definition of everything that can be classified as homicide in CA but it's somewhat helpful:

What Are The Different Types Of Homicide? | Attorneys.com

In sum, it's any act in which one person kills the other, whether accident, intentional, felony murder, or self defense.
 
Can we fill in any more blanks about these shootings?

1. 11-3-16 @ 3:00 a.m. - The shooting of the wildlife biologist James Rogers in Tapia Park in a hammock while sleeping 200 yards from Malibu Canyon Road. Shotgun blast to the head. Pellets. Hit his arm that was over his head. Fired at close range.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/losang...d-shootings-calabasas-park-father-killed/amp/
https://www.google.com/amp/www.lati...k-shooting-20180627-story.html?outputType=amp
STATE PARK JURIS.
2. 11-9-16 ?? Possibly spare wheel of RV hit by bird shot. Campground closed as investigation continues
STATE PARK. JURIS.
3. 1-7-17 - @ 5:00 a.m. Young woman and her boyfriend sleeping in a car at the Malibu Creek Park. Heard gun shot. Found a slug in the car the next morning. Fired from 20 feet away. Would have hit her if it was an inch higher. No one injured.
Cops probe two MORE shootings at a Malibu park | Daily Mail Online
STATE PARK JURIS.
4. 6-6-17 - Shooting reported in the area. I'm not sure what, when, where.
SHERIFF JURIS.
5. 7-22-17 @ 5:30-6:00 a.m. Shooting of white, SUV type vehicle hit with shotgun pellets, on the right, rear passenger side, gas tank door hit and side back window. Location? No one injured.
https://www.websleuths.com/forums/attachments/fb_img_1530371423396-jpg.137201/
The Local Malibu
SHERIFF JURIS.
6. 7-30-17 - ??
STATE PARK JURIS.
7. 6-18-18 at 4:20 a.m. Shots fired at a Tesla? at intersection of Las Virgenes and Mulholland Highway. https://www.websleuths.com/forums/attachments/crimemapping-jpg.137206/
Bullet hit car. No one injured.
There were five shootings at and near a Malibu park over two years. Why didn't authorities alert the public until father was killed?
SHERIFF JURIS.
8. 6-22-18 @ 4:45 a.m. TB. Malibu Creek Park. Shot while inside the tent. Shot to the head. Possible two gun shot holes to tent.
STATE PARK JURIS.
9. 6-25-18? Possibly man's car hit with a gunshot "in the area" of the TB shooting:
Second shooting at California state park where dad was killed while camping with daughters
Another article citing the one above, inexplicably gives more info not in the article:
"According to CBS News, a man reported finding gunshots on his parked vehicle at Malibu Creek State Park on Monday. There were no injuries reported."
Second shooting at Malibu campground where father found murdered in front of two young daughters
STATE PARK JURIS?
 
passepartout said:
The homicide detectives from earlier reports/news videos - for example, Lt. Rodney Moore - are with LASD. The Homicide Bureau falls under the Detective Division.

Organizational chart of LASD
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The reason I ask is because while updating the chart, I noticed the jurisdictional notations. State park jurisdiction and sheriff's jurisdiction.

The state parks have their own investigational agencies. I wonder how it is decided that a local agency will conduct the investigation and if others are involved or not.

I bet we could find out with a phone call!

California State Parks Peace Officer - Wikipedia
 
gitana1 said:
The reason I ask is because while updating the chart, I noticed the jurisdictional notations. State park jurisdiction and sheriff's jurisdiction.

The state parks have their own investigational agencies. I wonder how it is decided that a local agency will conduct the investigation and if others are involved or not.

I bet we could find out with a phone call!

California State Parks Peace Officer - Wikipedia
Click to expand...

There is often a lot of conflict, arguing, refusal to cooperate, and general turf issues in a crime like this. I'm speaking generally, not about any particularly agency.

In my opinion, interagency issues may be at least partly to blame for the random shooter problem not being identified sooner. Neither agency thought to let the other one know something was happening, and taken in isolation none of them seemed to be important.
 
RickshawFan said:
Two obvious ways come to mind that a shot sound could have been unnoticed: the bang of the restroom door closing in the night, though it looked to me as though the restroom was new enough have the old-fashioned bang-y doors (nonetheless, if those campers were used to camping where there were bang-y doors, they could mistakenly have "heard" what they thought were bang-y doors) or significant snoring at #50 or #51 or nearby.
Click to expand...

Adding to my snippet....

It occurs to me that the restrooms wouldn't have to be nearby or old-fashioned for an experienced camper to believe that a bathroom door had slammed when it was actually a shot.

It's all about conditioning. After a gazillion nights in campgrounds, you almost expect restroom-door-slam noises! It might take quite an effort for your sleeping brain to register that you'd heard a shot and not the familiar bang of the bathroom door.

I chronically have that door slam noise in my head.... I can very well imagine concluding, on hearing a shot in a campground, that I was hearing the restroom door.
 
passepartout said:
This is from 2010 (updated in 2014) but gives a good overview of crime in CA state parks - and of the difficulties in retaining/filling ranger positions.

Rising crime dims luster of CA state parks (Sacramento Bee)
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Interesting stuff from your cite:

Marijuana cultivation in the parks also is increasing. In 2009, 35 incidents were reported, up from 30 the prior year and only four in 1999.

When one plantation was busted in April in the rugged mountains of Malibu State Park, two armed men were arrested; one injured himself trying to get away.

"I think the entire system is teetering on the brink," said Richard Bergstresser, a former ranger at Humboldt Redwoods State Park and past president of the State Park Peace Officers Association. "Job No. 1 should be boots on the ground: Protection of the parks. I feel we've moved away from that mission."


Read more here: Rising crime dims luster of California state parks
 
gitana1 said:
Can we fill in any more blanks about these shootings?

1. 11-3-16 @ 3:00 a.m. - The shooting of the wildlife biologist James Rogers in Tapia Park in a hammock while sleeping 200 yards from Malibu Canyon Road. Shotgun blast to the head. Pellets. Hit his arm that was over his head. Fired at close range.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/losang...d-shootings-calabasas-park-father-killed/amp/
https://www.google.com/amp/www.lati...k-shooting-20180627-story.html?outputType=amp
STATE PARK JURIS.
2. 11-9-16 ?? Possibly spare wheel of RV hit by bird shot. Campground closed as investigation continues
STATE PARK. JURIS.
3. 1-7-17 - @ 5:00 a.m. Young woman and her boyfriend sleeping in a car at the Malibu Creek Park. Heard gun shot. Found a slug in the car the next morning. Fired from 20 feet away. Would have hit her if it was an inch higher. No one injured.
Cops probe two MORE shootings at a Malibu park | Daily Mail Online
STATE PARK JURIS.
4. 6-6-17 - Shooting reported in the area. I'm not sure what, when, where.
SHERIFF JURIS.
5. 7-22-17 @ 5:30-6:00 a.m. Shooting of white, SUV type vehicle hit with shotgun pellets, on the right, rear passenger side, gas tank door hit and side back window. Location? No one injured.
https://www.websleuths.com/forums/attachments/fb_img_1530371423396-jpg.137201/
The Local Malibu
SHERIFF JURIS.
6. 7-30-17 - ??
STATE PARK JURIS.
7. 6-18-18 at 4:20 a.m. Shots fired at a Tesla? at intersection of Las Virgenes and Mulholland Highway. https://www.websleuths.com/forums/attachments/crimemapping-jpg.137206/
Bullet hit car. No one injured.
There were five shootings at and near a Malibu park over two years. Why didn't authorities alert the public until father was killed?
SHERIFF JURIS.
8. 6-22-18 @ 4:45 a.m. TB. Malibu Creek Park. Shot while inside the tent. Shot to the head. Possible two gun shot holes to tent.
STATE PARK JURIS.
9. 6-25-18? Possibly man's car hit with a gunshot "in the area" of the TB shooting:
Second shooting at California state park where dad was killed while camping with daughters
Another article citing the one above, inexplicably gives more info not in the article:
"According to CBS News, a man reported finding gunshots on his parked vehicle at Malibu Creek State Park on Monday. There were no injuries reported."
Second shooting at Malibu campground where father found murdered in front of two young daughters
STATE PARK JURIS?
Click to expand...

9) I think these latest articles are badly worded and probably referring to the car shooting on 6/18/18, the Monday before Tristan was shot.
5) I think the white SUV is a BMW. The color pattern on the center of the wheel is the same used by BMW.
7-2017 BMW.jpg
So that gives us 2 high end vehicles - a BMW and a Tesla - so far.
 
SoHelpMeGod said:
9) I think these latest articles are badly worded and probably referring to the car shooting on 6/18/18, the Monday before Tristan was shot.
5) I think the white SUV is a BMW. The color pattern on the center of the wheel is the same used by BMW.
View attachment 137720
So that gives us 2 high end vehicles - a BMW and a Tesla - so far.
Click to expand...
I agree. I have the same vehicle and color.
 
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