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

[Roadtripper]

My goodness. So glad you and your family were safe. It does sound like you were very close to their tent.

If you dont mind trying to answer a few other questions when you see this. Listed them below.

My assumptions so far based on your information is the person was using a semi-automatic because of how quick you heard the shots. This helps us determine type of weapon. Based on size of hole(s) in tent we saw on a picture I am assuming most likely either a shotgun using slug or a rifle or possibly a handgun. I originally wasnt leaning to a handgun because its so difficult to be able to aim and actually hit the person in the head unless the shooter was right outside their tent which I suppose is possible if he snuck in there on foot.

(1)-I know you mentioned the shots were loud and I know its hard to guage sound. I have done lots of target practicing with others and one way to know the difference between a shotgun sound and a rifle sound is that a shotgun will sound more like an "explosion" where a rifle has more of a loud piercing sound and will have a tendency to echo more. A handgun sounds more like an "explosion" too but not as loud as a shotgun blast.

Based on that and if you had to take a guess would you be able to guess whether you think it was quick shotgun blasts or quick rifle shots or quick handgun rounds?

(2) Did LE search any of the campers or did you see anyone being searched or did you see LE going through their stuff?

(3) The evening before or the morning right after the shots did you happen to notice if the victims tent or any tents in his direction had lights on inside their tent?

Trying to figure out if he camped all night with a light on for his kids.

Thanks again for any information you can provide. It is very helpful and we understand you are just taking best guesses at any answers.

I didn’t really look over in the direction of TBs campsite at night so I couldn’t say if there was a light on. One of the restrooms was between their spot and ours.
It’s hard to explain the gunshots in words. They were not overly loud like a shotgun or rifle. It was a quick bap-bap-bap-bap-bap-bap. My first thought (and this is not based on any kind of expert opinion, just based on news and movies) is that it was a small caliber handgun. It could’ve been a light rifle but my gut says handgun.

 

[Roadtripper]

LE were interviewing everyone. I couldn’t say if anyone was searched thoroughly. The camp host had a trailer setup at the start of the loop across from TB a couple spaces down from me in the same side.

 

[gitana1]

Harmony has posted Google maps upthread with escape routes that may work as well as this campground map that I am going to repost. TB & BIL’s campsites were situated near the Campfire Center Path. Perhaps this was an exit route?

I always think of the trail that runs from the campsite all the way to the Tapia Park parking lot. It's a 40 minute hike but someone who knows the area well could easily do it. And no one would hear.

 

[Roadtripper]

It was hard to gauge the passage of time while everything was happening. The only time I checked the time was when I first woke from the shots which is when I saw 4:27. I don’t remember how long the child crying was going or stopped before I heard the man ask for help.
I’m sure the shots may have sounded different to others depending on if they were in a tent or camper. Even in my own tent, my youngest two kids didn’t wake up, my 15 year old went right back to sleep and my wife thought it must be someone shooting at an animal or something of that nature.

 

[ScorpioRising]

It was hard to gauge the passage of time while everything was happening. The only time I checked the time was when I first woke from the shots which is when I saw 4:27. I don’t remember how long the child crying was going or stopped before I heard the man ask for help.
I’m sure the shots may have sounded different to others depending on if they were in a tent or camper. Even in my own tent, my youngest two kids didn’t wake up, my 15 year old went right back to sleep and my wife thought it must be someone shooting at an animal or something of that nature.

Do you happen to know which campsites were the empty ones?

 

[RickshawFan]

I haven’t seen anyone comment about this and offer speculation....

The victim’s and the BIL’s tents were identical. Both were pitched identically and with full flies. Each had 2 kids as well. How would a shooter have got the “right” tent? Could it be that it was the “wrong” tent? How would a shooter—or anyone—know which tent was which?

 

[OnYourLeft]

I haven’t seen anyone comment about this and offer speculation....

The victim’s and the BIL’s tents were identical. Both were pitched identically and with full flies. Each had 2 kids as well. How would a shooter have got the “right” tent? Could it be that it was the “wrong” tent? How would a shooter—or anyone—know which tent was which?

I did wonder this all well and of course this would be based on the theory of a targeted hit.

Road - I am so very sorry you and your family witnessed this tragic event. Unfortunately, there have been so many active shooter events this year, I can only imagine what you were feeling at the time. Thank you very much for going back to that moment in time for us and answering these questions.

Please bear with me here - if you will - those of you more knowledgeable on guns than I. The early coroner report that was pulled indicated one bullet...LE has said one bullet - if a semi-automatic was used (bam bam bam bam bam) would the shooter have enough control of the gun for only one bullet to enter TB and miss the girls?

If a glock was used - (bam bam bam bam bam) closer range - shell casings collected possibly - echo in the canyon possible? However, would it cause the damage to TB where first responders called the death as bullet to upper torso? And so much blood on the girls, LE thought they were shot as well?

 

[Harmony 2]

I always think of the trail that runs from the campsite all the way to the Tapia Park parking lot. It's a 40 minute hike but someone who knows the area well could easily do it. And no one would hear.

Is this the one you are referring to?

Tapia Spur Trail - Trails - Los Angeles County

 

[Roadtripper]

Do you happen to know which campsites were the empty ones?

I believe 8, 10, and possibly 12 were empty. We were in 9 and there was no one across the road between us and the bathroom.

 

[Legally Bland]

I'm not convinced about the bullet holes, especially the one at the arrow on the right . The problem is a high quality tent has tie-downs so you can add guys in a big wind. This makes the tent stable. It would be very typical to have a tie down loop on the fly where the pole is.

You can see the tie-downs on the current version: REI Co-op Kingdom 6 Tent | REI Co-op

The victim and the BIL had the previous version of the same tent. There are some obvious differences in the colors and how far down the light-colored panels reach.

The "rod" may be an artifact on the camera lens.

BBM. I'm not sure exactly what it is, but I don't think it's a lens artifact. It remains constant as the camera pans round. (I'm still leaning towards it being a trajectory rod).

Harmony's screenshot:

A different angle:

 

[passepartout]

I always think of the trail that runs from the campsite all the way to the Tapia Park parking lot. It's a 40 minute hike but someone who knows the area well could easily do it. And no one would hear.

You can walk in a lot faster from Crags Rd/Las Virgenes Rd. That's the area across from the Hindu temple. You could leave a vehicle on the road or in the side road to the temple and hike in. It's maybe 400 metres walk from there. You'd need a light of some kind but then you'd also need to be able to see if you were planning to shoot at someone/something.

No one in the area is going to report hearing a car on the road. There are cars on the road at all hours in SoCal and Las Virgenes is a popular route from the 101 to the PCH.

 

[s'mores code]

I find myself returning back to reflect on my own personal experience as i search for context to help explain what may have happened at MCSP in the early A.M. July 22.
I remember one hot summer day spent at the beach in Santa Monica a long, long time ago back in the previous century when i was a youngster of 9 or 10 years old.
This was before the invention of the Morey Boogie board and its subsequent clones revolutionized surf-riding for kids. Instead, we relied on an inflatable canvas "raft" bought at K-Mart or Big 5 Sporting Goods as the vehicle on which to catch a wave and ride it onto the shore.
My brother and i each had a raft which we laid out next to our beach towels on dry sand following a session of surf riding on that particular day. We then proceeded to situate ourselves several yards away down to the tide line where we could dig in the wet sand for sand crabs.
After a while we tired of that and turned around to head back towards our beach towel spot.
As we got closer our beach towels came into view, but our rafts were nowhere to be seen.
Many people had similar looking or even identical looking rafts, so we figured that someone may have mistakenly grabbed ours as they rushed down to meet the foamy Pacific Ocean.
We walked along the water's edge while our eyes scoured groups of kids playing in the rolling tide, looking for any sign of our missing rafts. It wasn't long before we spotted them out in the water, each with a kid about our own ages laid across the raft and guiding it on a surf ride towards the shore.
My brother and I waded out to the two other kids riding our rafts. Once we had their attention, we explained that they were riding our rafts and we had come out to get them back.
The response we received was not what we expected to hear.
"these are not your rafts, these belong to us" said the two kids as they kicked and paddled away. We also turned and began walking back to our beach site, and began to ponder the odd circumstance.
We considered that we might go over to the lifeguard tower, explain the predicament and maybe the lifeguard would enforce the return of our rafts. However, we quickly abandoned that plan.
We weren't happy about the whole situation, but we were already fairly exhausted and not likely to want to use them in the water again that day.
It was wrong for someone to take our rafts, but maybe those kids were from a family too poor to buy rafts and we knew that Mom would simply buy 2 new rafts for us to bring along next time we came to the beach.
So we decided to accept the situation as it was. We returned to our beach site, began to play in the sand and didn't look back.
After a while, out of nowhere some guy suddenly plopped himself down on the sand right next to my brother and I and confronted us.
This was some high school age guy, or maybe a little older and he spoke in a threatening tone.
"Those are not your rafts, they belong to us. If you try to tell anyone that we took your rafts, I'm going to beat you up". He glared at us, stood up and walked away.
My brother and I sat there stunned, speechless.
Who the heck was that guy and where did he come from? He certainly was not either of the 2 kids we found out in the water riding our rafts.
And we had never accused anyone of taking our rafts, we just asked to get them back.
No matter what the kids or the big guy claimed, we knew those rafts belonged to us and not to them. And we knew that they knew that. Our Mom had written our last name in permanent marker on each raft. And I'm certain those kids and that guy did not have our same last name, written in my Mom's penmanship.
But i don't attempt to argue or reason with thugs. Not now and not when i was 9 years old.
And I don't appreciate attempts at intimidation. Especially, when its unnecessary and a waste of my time. You got our rafts, O.K.? So good-bye. Why is someone coming over to interrupt me and threaten me as an epilogue to stealing our rafts?
If I fast-forward a few decades in the development of our modern society, our current diverse culture features at least a few who possess a mentality like the guy in the sand at the beach who might rationalize killing someone like TB staying at the same campground.
Maybe the guy at the beach was the older brother or cousin or uncle of the 2 kids. He stole our rafts from behind our backs and gave them to the 2 kids. And it made him feel like a big shot. The 2 kids will look up and admire him. And then when the kids report to him that someone approached them in the water and asked to get their rafts back - well now Mr. Big shot's fragile ego facade reacts by turning a petty theft into an aggravated assault, for no good reason other than his damaged personality and his warped and violent mentality.
So maybe an altercation at the campground. or not even. maybe a verbal confrontation. or not even. maybe some incident which was momentarily disconcerting, or just trivial to a normal person.
But in the mind of an insecure and hateful , who brought a semi-auto with ammo to a family campsite. And maybe some drugs which induce a state of paranoia and/or quasi-psychosis.
which after several hours of brooding in the echo-chamber of his twisted mind results in justification to hunt down and terminate someone's husband, some kid's dad in a tent at the campsite and then run out and down the road and hide like a coward. And call later for pick-up and a ride back home.
It's possible he never even spoke to tristan beaudette.
His girls are very young.
His brother-in-law brought his two boys who are a little bit older. And more likely to range out into the campground beyond the constant sight of their dad. Could have had some interaction with some other kids which neither TB, nor his brother-in -law saw nor heard. Or maybe there was some words between 2 adults over some interaction between 2 sets of young boys goofing around out in the campground.
And Mr. Big Shot goes out at 4:30a.m. to claim his respect from T.B.
or the brother-in-law may have been the intended target.
Its fairly easy for someone with a mentality of the aggressor in the hypothetical scenario which I'm trying to present to make a mistake, like killing the wrong person.

 

[ScorpioRising]

You can walk in a lot faster from Crags Rd/Las Virgenes Rd. That's the area across from the Hindu temple. You could leave a vehicle on the road or in the side road to the temple and hike in. It's maybe 400 metres walk from there. You'd need a light of some kind but then you'd also need to be able to see if you were planning to shoot at someone/something.

No one in the area is going to report hearing a car on the road. There are cars on the road at all hours in SoCal and Las Virgenes is a popular route from the 101 to the PCH.

I agree that walking up from Las Virgenes seems like a likely option (if not coming from down the camps area). What baffles me in the random scenario is that the shooter picked a tent on the inside on the loop when tents were on the outside. If he was walking in he would have picked the inside tent instead of outside tents. Possibly because a light was on showing a silhouette. If all tents were dark and silent then why would someone pick that tent possibly walking by other tents? Unless of course it was more of a sniper shot from further away outside the campground. But even then why not pick the closer tents?

The other option is like someone said earlier in the thread that the shots came from the tent 2,4 area which would be close to the road leading away from the campground back into the park to get away once people come out of the tents. This would explain why the inside tent was picked since the shooter would be on the opposite site and close enough to get away from camp area.

 

[KaaBoom]

What baffles me in the random scenario is that the shooter picked a tent on the inside on the loop when tents were on the outside. If he was walking in he would have picked the inside tent instead of outside tents. Possibly because a light was on showing a silhouette. If all tents were dark and silent then why would someone pick that tent possibly walking by other tents? Unless of course it was more of a sniper shot from further away outside the campground. But even then why not pick the closer tents?

I think it is a safe bet that the shooter was far away, or the crime scene photos would have shown evidence markers, outside the tent.

 

[Harmony 2]

Not necessarily. The shooter could have either missed his first few shots or maybe shot a few rounds at the other tent and missed and then moved to shoot at the final tent and found his target.

4:00 timestamp shows multiple shots with three targets

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But Road heard extremely fast multiple shots in a group. It seems the shooter didn't move around from one tent to another, but his/her only target was TB's tent.

And if the shooter was outside the tent, then there would be multiple holes - more than two for sure- on the tent, the holes contained in one concentric area, not all over the place. That may be the case, who knows, we don't have confirmation from LE yet.

The video has an example of five shots at fast speed at 5:00 timestamp.

I still don't understand why the bullet holes were not grouped in multiple holes.

 

[ScorpioRising]

I think it is a safe bet that the shooter was far away, or the crime scene photos would have shown evidence markers, outside the tent.

That makes sense. So the only reason in the case of a sniper shot to pick TB's tent then could be that it was illuminated and a good target from the location that was set up from higher grounds? Anybody know whether spot 51 and 49 can be seen from mullholland drive at all? I see the little rest areas on google maps but cant tell whether the tent area can be seen from those?

 

[avalonisland]

IMO, this is a better representaion of the version of REI Kingdom tent Ad used by Victim: REI Co-op Kingdom 6 Tent | REI Co-op .
Also, IMO, LE image shows a faded REI logo. Here is center divider REI website image which could have been zipped down but see attached image of REI ad (or above link and click on different images).
The odd position of Adult sandals does appear IMO that victim slept on that side but also shoes IMO could have been marking to let shooter know which side of "co-op" tent victim sleeping on. The shoes actually look almost similar to REI website photo.
IMO, kids start crying could have prompted shooter to shoot at crying noise.
Monte Nido is a 6-8 minute drive from MCSP campground.
If BIL in #49 campsite, IMO, it's interesting that a shots fired call to LE did not happen until 4:44am.
IMO, there's no evidence that bullet holes are not at bottom of tent or on other side of tent.
I have not seen close up of other side of tent.
LE saying victim shot inside tent. The tent could be used as a 2-family tent per REI ad.
To my knowledge, LE has not commented on bullet holes to tent.
IMO, if shooter was hired hit, shooter could have fired 2 shots at victim, and the additional shots fired could have been directed at movement in tent. There could be bullet holes to bottom of tent.
LE has not stated how many people slept in victim's tent night of 6/21/18, but did confirm Victim and 2 daughters were inside tent at time of shooting, and 2 daughters uninjured.

 

[avalonisland]

tent #49 appears smaller than tent #51 and not the same.
Attached is crime scene image; REI marketing image; and image not of victim's tent but that of another person (not at MCSP campground) who has similar tent.

 

[gitana1]

I haven’t seen anyone comment about this and offer speculation....

The victim’s and the BIL’s tents were identical. Both were pitched identically and with full flies. Each had 2 kids as well. How would a shooter have got the “right” tent? Could it be that it was the “wrong” tent? How would a shooter—or anyone—know which tent was which?

That's a really good point. I hadn't thought of that.

 

[gitana1]

Is this the one you are referring to?

Tapia Spur Trail - Trails - Los Angeles County

Yes. It keeps going directly to the campground.