Records: Suspect in plot to kill Smith Rock climbers fantasized about Mt. Hood attack

Published 5:45 am Wednesday, October 25, 2023

The man accused last week of planning to shoot rock climbers at Smith Rock State Park was the subject of police scrutiny in August and September, far earlier than authorities have previously disclosed, according to a court document reviewed by The Bulletin.

What’s more, Samson Zebturiah Garner, 39, frequently imagined acts of extreme violence, even dreaming about using an assault rifle to kill people at Mt. Hood Meadows and “filling the field around Mt Hood Express with bodies,” the court document states.

“I fantasize daily about murder, death, and vengeance,” Garner said in a Sept. 30 email to a friend, adding that he thought about driving to see his ex-wife in Michigan, “cutting her fingers off and killing her mom while making her watch.”

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The email followed a previous string of texts Garner sent to another friend in which he alluded to violence and bloodshed. That friend reported the messages to police on Aug. 22.

The details — which have not been previously reported — are contained within a petition for an extreme risk protection order, filed in the Multnomah County Circuit Court on Oct. 18 by Portland Police Bureau officer Jason T. Wands.

An extreme risk protection order is a one-year court order that mandates people who pose a danger to themselves or others to give up their deadly weapons, including firearms. It also bars a person from purchasing any new deadly weapons.

Garner was arrested outside his Subaru near Tumalo on Thursday after authorities say he drove from Multnomah County to Central Oregon with guns in his car.

He faces a slew of charges, the most serious being attempted murder. Court records describe the people he was allegedly planning to kill as spectators and belayers, the term for a person who holds the rope that catches a climber when they fall.

In his Sept. 30 email, Garner also stated that his father is Joseph T. Garner, who was convicted of killing his own father and eating part of his brain over Christmas in 1995. He was sentenced to 62 years in an Indiana prison, where he remains, according to a database with the Indiana Department of Corrections.

“Some part of me is a horrible, psychopathic monster,” Garner wrote in his email. “I’m turning into him, I’m turning into my father.”

Portland police declined to speak with The Bulletin about what officers did after first learning about Garner’s statements in August and wouldn’t confirm Garner’s familial relationships.

“Discussing how we ‘monitored’ the suspect would cross over into … investigative techniques we don’t discuss,” said Terri Wallo Strauss, a public information officer with the Portland Police Bureau.

Deschutes County District Attorney Steve Gunnels could not confirm who Garner’s father was and wouldn’t comment on the protective order. Joel Wirtz, Garner’s defense attorney, also did not return a call seeking comment.

In a statement Monday, the American Alpine Club, a climbing-focused nonprofit organization with more than 24,000 members, said Garner was a former member.

The organization confirmed that law enforcement officials contacted it prior to Garner’s arrest, describing “a significant threat that may have impacted the health and safety of climbers at Smith Rock State Park, including attendees to the Smith Rock Craggin’ Classic scheduled for October 20-22.”

Upon his arrest about 30 minutes away from Smith Rock, police found a Beretta 9mm handgun, a Sig Sauer 9mm handgun and an AR-15 rifle, according to court records. Law enforcement officials also obtained writing that allegedly included Garner’s plans to shoot and kill rock climbers at Smith Rock, Gunnels said Monday.

Gunnels wouldn’t describe what was written or how it was recorded. He also couldn’t say why Garner appeared to have been targeting climbers, but added: “You’re not going to find a good reason about why he was planning to do what he was doing.”

Friends express concerns to police

Portland police officer Cristin P. Bolles first spoke with one of Garner’s friends on Aug. 22. The man said he knew Garner for about six years. Though he hadn’t been directly threatened, he said he was so concerned about text messages he had received from his friend that “he and his family were not staying at their residence.”

The man believed his friend was “well armed and owns rifles as well as handguns and possibly body armor.”

In the Sept. 30 email, which the recipient reported to police, Garner described himself as a rock climber and adventurer whose mental health, finances, family life and relationships were falling apart. He spoke about his favorite rock climbs and the “trips and objectives that will never be.” He spoke about how his father allegedly beat his mother and the murder of his grandfather when he was 11.

He went on to say that he had been “changing” over the past year and a half. He stopped training and watching UFC “because I thought the exposure to violence was making it worse,” he wrote.

“I have nothing left to lose or give,” he wrote. “I am broken. The demon inside is winning and will soon emerge victorious.”

Then he wrote about the Craggin’ Classic. He said “my mind immediately thought about killing people rock climbing there, how easy it would be to rampage through the park shooting belayers and spectators while their climbers watched and lived the horror, unable to help or do anything to save themselves and their friends.”

On Oct. 5, Portland police detective Kristina M. Coffey spoke to the recipient of the Sept. 30 email and Garner’s ex-wife. Both said Garner owned multiple firearms.

The detective tried to contact Garner by phone and left voice messages. Because he was believed to be armed, and due to his views around authority, police decided not to contact him at home “in an effort to not precipitate a force event.”