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Organ Pipe Claims Ranger Victim Kevin Curran, NewsMaxIt is called the most dangerous place in the national park system, and this weekend the dire warnings about Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument became a grim reality. Two men suspected in a quadruple murder in Mexico managed to drive right across the border and kill a National Park Service ranger who was working alone. Even worse, bureaucratic inaction at the Secretary of Interior's office prevented implementation of a program that may have avoided the tragedy. On Friday, 27-year-old Kris Eggle was the only ranger patrolling the 330,000 acre park, its 31-mile long southern boundary being the Mexican border. Park spokesman Dave Hutson tells NewsMax.com U.S. Customs at the Lukeville port of entry received a call from Mexican police that two men in a vehicle fled north from them. Eggle and three Border Patrol agents responded on the ground while a Border Patrol helicopter flew over. The chopper located one man, who was arrested by a Border Patrol agent without incident. The helicopter then located the second suspect and guided the park ranger to him. Hutson says the other man, a Mexican national, fired on the ranger as he approached, striking him below his body armor. An ambulance crew treated Eggle, but he died before he could be transported by helicopter to a Tucson hospital. The Mexican national who killed Eggle was also fatally shot, apparently by Mexican officers firing across the border. The death of Ranger Eggle saddened fellow members of the law enforcement ranger service, but did not come as a surprise. For the past two years, the National Park Rangers Lodge of the Fraternal Order of Police has issued a list of the 10 most dangerous national parks. Organ Pipe has topped the list each year, "due to numerous incidents involving international drug trafficking, inflow of illegal aliens, and a workforce that is understaffed to safely manage the problem ... The park also reported that drug and alien smugglers had created miles of illegal roads in the park. There are too few rangers to safely handle this workload." Lone Patrol Brian Waldman, the past president of the FOP lodge, told NewsMax.com staff from the Secretary of Interior's office met earlier this year to discuss the border parks. A memo was drafted requiring that rangers not be allowed to patrol alone, but it was never signed. He says after this shooting, "there will be another report done," but he is prepared for more studies and delays without action. He added congressional action is needed because Interior, "can't fix its own problems." He has, "no reason to be optimistic" about changes. The biggest problem, as Waldman sees it, is that no one thinks of national parks as dangerous places. A 1995-99 Justice Department study of federal officers found NPS Rangers had the highest assault rate among them, 38 per 1000. Assaults resulting in death or injury were 15 per 1000, triple the second highest rate (at Customs). The other parks on the most dangerous list include Big Bend and the Padre Island Seashore in Texas, where there have also been problems with drug and human smugglers. Arizona had two other parks on the list: Lake Mead and the Grand Canyon, where the numbers of rangers are called dangerously low. Among the smaller parks that did not make the top 10 list but are just as dangerous are the Coronado and Chiracuahua National Monuments in Arizona and the Amistad National Recreation Area in Texas. "Small staffs and a big problem with drug and illegal alien trafficking mean that these small parks share many of the same problems as their larger neighbors," union officials said. "With limited staffing, their law enforcement status is purely defensive in nature, without the ability to put a dent in the problems." A funeral service for Eggle will be held Monday in Ajo, Ariz.
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