cannabisnews.com: Only Chicken Coop Left as 10 Buildings Burn Only Chicken Coop Left as 10 Buildings Burn Posted by FoM on September 07, 2001 at 08:10:59 PT By John Eby, Dowagiac Daily News Source: Dowagiac Daily News There’s nothing left at the end of the Rainbow but a chicken coop. All 10 Rainbow Farm buildings burned to the ground during the five-day standoff at the 34-acre Newberg Township campground. “I want to emphasize,” said John E. Bell Jr., special agent in charge of the Detroit office, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), “all 10 of those buildings were burned as a result of actions taken by people there. Law enforcement started none of those fires. The only thing that’s left is kind of a ratty old chicken coop. Thank goodness the chickens still have a roof over their heads.” The operation involved 65 to 70 FBI tactical and agent personnel brought in from Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo, Benton Harbor-St. Joseph and Detroit, Bell said.Cass County Sheriff Joseph M. Underwood Jr. estimated his office provided 30 to 45 officers, which “pretty much takes care of” his available manpower.“We came in on Sunday. You shoot at a helicopter, that’s a federal violation if you attempt to disable an aircraft. That is a crime over which the FBI has jurisdiction. When that occurred, we were notified by the sheriff’s department and an agent from our Benton Harbor-St. Joe office came down and worked with the sheriff,” Bell said.Bell said federal investigators continue combing the campground because “it’s very important to our investigation to know what went on here. We’d like to know if there was an accelerant used to start this fire. We want to know what went on in the house, what was in the house, what kind of weapons and explosives may have been in the house. It’s important for us to find out exactly what went on here. Part of us being able to do that is with forensics. That’s what we’re doing today.”Bell said “given the nature of the fire” consuming everything, investigators did not expect to recover any narcotics.Of weapons, Bell told a female reporter, “I know this morning we had a couple of long guns found. I know there’s been a rifle found and a revolver found. Beyond that, I don’t know. I guess it depends on what your description of what a ‘big stash’ of guns is. To some people, two or three would be a big stash. To others, it would take hundreds. I don’t know that that’s all that unusual, quite frankly. This is a rural area. I’m not from Cass, but I’m sure there’s a lot of hunting around here.”Authorities recovered the two Ruger mini 14 semi-automatic assault rifles involved in the shootings.“The one that was pointed at the FBI was definitely loaded. It was loaded to the gills,” Bell said. “If they were pointing one of those guns at me, I’d consider them dangerous. The mere fact that they’ve got the weapons doesn’t make them dangerous. What makes a dangerous situation is how they use them.”Aside from the fact that as a convicted felon Rainbow Farm campground owner Grover “Tom” Crosslin, 46, could not legally possess guns, Bell indicated only legal weapons had been recovered.Bell refused to specify how many times Crosslin was shot.“They found at least one pipe bomb that appeared to have gone off during the fire. It’s very hard to tell” whether that constituted evidence that the property had been booby-trapped, “or if it was just something that had been lying around. There’s no way of knowing now” due to fire damage.“We’ve got FBI national laboratory people in there who are still doing some work, so we can’t let you go right up in, but you’re not going to have any problem. It’s so close you’ll be able to see what’s going on. The areas you can’t go into are roped off with yellow evidence tape.”“We’re pretty much finishing up,” Bell said. “The longest part of it right now will probably be to finish sifting debris in the house. I think we’ll probably finish up on the hill (where an FBI agent shot Crosslin) today. I’m sure we’ll be done by the close of business (Sept. 6). This is an FBI investigation. The Justice Department is not involved” except to the extent U.S. attorneys are needed to authorize search warrants. “The shooting incident being investigated right now is the normal FBI shooting incident that occurs any time an agent fires a weapon. There’s nothing unusual about that,” Bell said. When asked whether they were trying to determine if the use of deadly force was justified, Bell reiterated, “We want to find out everything that happened.”Information gathered will be presented to Cass County Prosecuting Attorney Scott Teter “because a death has occurred — just like it would be in any other instance — and the prosecutor will render a decision of whether it was justified or not.”Asked whether he has any sense why the situation escalated, Bell responded, “That’s something I don’t think I ought to comment on. That would be me trying to put myself in the minds of the other individuals, and I don’t think that’s appropriate.”When an FBI agent shoots someone, he surrenders his gun because its involvement converts it to evidence. “We replace that with another weapon and he continues on duty, unlike some police departments who put them on some kind of administrative leave,” Bell said. “We don’t. We do grant the agent, if he wants to take some time off, we will allow him that, but we don’t force him to go onto administrative leave.” The agent left the area with other tactical participants and is no longer working here, Bell said, declining to identify what bureau to which that person is assigned. “Examination by the coroner determined that the individual had been hit more than once,” Bell said, but “I don’t want to get involved in the number of shooters and the number of times the person was hit until the investigation is finished.”Bell said laboratory and crime units which have been involved in processing the scene included the Michigan State Police crime lab, MSP fire marshal, MSP bomb dogs, a Grand Rapids accelerant dog, MSP cadaver dogs which were still checking for bodies early Wednesday morning, the FBI evidence response team “which will primarily be in the hole in the house itself, sifting the debris coming out for evidence” and the FBI national laboratory people who are going to be working the hill where the Crosslin confrontation took place.”Bell also thanked Newberg Township Fire Department for its assistance. “That house was still hot last night and this morning, cooking. Before we can sift that material, they’re being kind enough to come out and wet it down for us so we’re not sifting coals. They’re making sure there is no fire left in it so we can conduct the sifting operation,” Bell said.“Obviously, we can’t answer anything related to the investigation and the actual shootings that took place,” Bell said. “We anticipate giving you about an hour there with pretty much free rein except areas roped off with evidence tape to maintain the integrity of those crime scenes.” Source: Dowagiac Daily News (MI)Author: John Eby, Dowagiac Daily NewsPublished: Friday, September 7, 2001Copyright: 2001 Dowagiac Daily NewsContact: dailynews leaderpub.comWebsite: http://www.dowagiacnews.com/Related Articles & Web Sites:Rainbow Farm Campgroundhttp://www.rainbowfarmcampground.com/Tom Crosslin & Rolland Rohm Memorial http://www.freedomtoexhale.com/rb.htmNo Booby Traps Found http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread10840.shtmlFBI, MSP Defend Shootingshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread10836.shtml END SNIP --> Snipped Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help Comment #7 posted by kaptinemo on September 08, 2001 at 06:45:22 PT: 4D, that was a keeper! I've saved it for later enshrinement, to bring it out again when some jerk protests to me that the media is not corporately controlled and we here in Ah-mur-ik-ka have a'free press', yessir! To say anything otherwise is Uhn-Ah-mur-ik-kan! [ Post Comment ] Comment #6 posted by MikeEEEEE on September 07, 2001 at 15:50:05 PT A little history When the Nazi's came to town the Russians burned the town before they came. [ Post Comment ] Comment #5 posted by dddd on September 07, 2001 at 10:41:29 PT for your perusal Hierarchy Of Newspapers 1. The Wall Street Journal is read by the people who run the country. 2. The New York Times is read by people who think they run the country. 3. The Washington Post is read by people who think they ought to run the country. 4. USA Today is read by people who think they ought to run the country but don't understand the Washington Post. 5. The Los Angeles Times is read by people who wouldn't mind running the country, if they could spare the time. 6. The Boston Globe is read by people whose parents used to run the country. 7. The New York Daily News is read by people who aren't too sure who's running the country. 8. The New York Post is read by people who don't care who's running the country, as long as they do something scandalous. 9. The San Francisco Chronicle is read by people who aren't sure there is a country, or that anyone is running it. 10. The Miami Herald is read by people who are running another country. [ Post Comment ] Comment #4 posted by Lehder on September 07, 2001 at 10:19:48 PT i do not presume that crosslin or anyone shot at the helicopter. now it is unfortunate that the deceased, if they expected the feds, lacked the brains to be unarmed. but who had the motive for shooting at helicopters, or saying that shots were fired at a helicopter? ans: the feds. there must be a federal violation for the feds to be brought in. they did not come reluctantly. they did not encourage locals to handle the scene themselves. two dim wits with guns and matches. do we need feds for this? feds are for al capone, john gotti and osama bin laden. give me a break. and if you give me a hard time for saying 'dim-wits' i'll ignore you. [ Post Comment ] Comment #3 posted by wades on September 07, 2001 at 10:09:35 PT: Disproportianate response "We came in on Sunday. You shoot at a helicopter, that’s a federal violation if you attempt to disable an aircraft. That is a crime over which the FBI has jurisdiction."Whoever shot at the helicopter shouldn't have done that.On the other hand, there's a difference between taking potshots at a helicopter buzzing one's property and shooting down an airliner with a Stinger missle. The FBI's authority properly covers the latter situation. [ Post Comment ] Comment #2 posted by New Mexican on September 07, 2001 at 09:26:10 PT 2 men murdered: but the chickens have a roof! This man is insane, our country is insane, the press is disgusting! [ Post Comment ] Comment #1 posted by goneposthole on September 07, 2001 at 09:15:47 PT chickens Tom Crosslin left those chickens there for a reason. [ Post Comment ] Post Comment