U.S. Forest Service employees held hostage — FULL Press Conference

[0:00] Good afternoon. My name is Tom Schultz, S-C-H-U-L-T-Z. I'm the chief of the U.S. Forest Service. [0:10] So two Forest Service employees are taken hostage yesterday by two armed individuals. [0:14] On July 16th, they were conducting field work on the Shasta Trinity Forest in Northern California. [0:20] At the early morning hours of July 17th, both were released safely. We are very relieved and grateful. [0:28] Forest Service law enforcement personnel were notified in the incident at approximately 11 a.m. [0:33] On July 16th, the first call came to Forest Service law enforcement officer who coordinated the initial response [0:39] with the Siskiyou County Sheriff's Office and the FBI. From there, this was a joint law enforcement [0:46] operation led by the FBI with our officers coordinating and supporting on the ground, [0:52] along with Siskiyou County Sheriff's Office, the Bureau of Land Management, California Highway Patrol, [0:57] California Department of Fish and Wildlife, and law enforcement partners from eight counties. [1:03] We are grateful to everyone. I want to say how profoundly grateful and relieved that we are [1:09] that our two employees were released safely. Their well-being continues to be our highest priority. [1:16] We're staying close to them and their loved ones, making sure they have the support and the space [1:20] that they need after what they've been through. This has been a frightening experience for everyone [1:25] involved, for our employees, their families, their co-workers, and frankly, for all of us who care about the [1:30] people who serve this agency, the public every day. USDA Secretary Rollins asked me to share her deep [1:38] concern for the families and her appreciation for the extraordinary work of law enforcement. [1:44] In her words, she stated, [1:46] I am incredibly relieved that our two Forest Service employees are safe and back with their families. [1:52] This outcome reflects the skill and resolve of the FBI, Siskiyou County Sheriff's Office, [1:58] our Forest Service law enforcement officers, and every partner who responded. [2:02] Throughout this event, I stayed in close contact with FBI Director Patel and the White House, [2:08] because nothing matters more than the safety of the people that serve this country. [2:11] To our employees and their families, you are never alone, Brooke Rollins, USDA Secretary. [2:18] I share the Secretary's gratitude. This was an incredible effort by all involved. [2:23] The outcome is a testament to the skill and professionalism of our Forest Service law [2:28] enforcement officers, the FBI, Siskiyou County Sheriff's Office, and everybody to respond, [2:33] and we are proud of them today. Thank you. [2:35] Good afternoon. My name is Jeremiah LaRue. That's J-E-R-E-M-I-A-H-L-A-R-U-E. And I am the [2:51] Sheriff of Siskiyou County. I appreciate everyone that's here today to listen to these moments and [3:00] take them to heart, because I think that it's been a very emotional past couple days. And I know as [3:08] sheriff, I sincerely share that with many people when someone from our community goes through [3:14] something that is traumatic. And so with that, I'd like to just recount some things that came through [3:19] our office for you to help you with that. We received a call at the Siskiyou County Sheriff's Office [3:27] at around 10 55 a.m. And the phone call was from a U.S. Forest Service law enforcement officer [3:38] indicating that a gentleman who was later identified as Joseph Charles Hendrickson had [3:50] two Forest Service employees zip-tied and held at gunpoint inside a trailer at Gumboot Lake, [4:02] which is in Siskiyou County near Mount Shasta, California. Mr. Hendrickson indicated that he had [4:14] firearms, ammunition, and wanted to speak with the FBI. The Siskiyou County Sheriff's Office [4:24] immediately mobilized and we sent deputies and our special response team to the location [4:32] around noon. And when we arrived, we started to mobilize. We started using drones almost immediately. [4:41] They are an excellent tool. And we started making resource requests to the Shasta County Sheriff's [4:49] Office as well as communicating with our federal partners. At about 1 0 3 p.m. using our drones, [5:02] we were able to identify a trailer where Mr. Hendrickson was inside. And we attempted every effort to begin [5:12] communicating with him to resolve the potential conflict. At that time, we were still unsure as we [5:20] would not know unless we can make positive confirmation of what was occurring. And between that [5:26] time period, people started showing up from all over. And I can't tell you as a sheriff just how [5:34] incredibly thankful I am for our partnerships, not only at the state, the local communities that we serve [5:42] around, but also the federal government. And it wasn't until about four o'clock, about 4 20, that we were able [5:51] to begin negotiations with Mr. Hendrickson. And there's a lot that transpired between that. And what I'll tell you, [6:01] though, that the best part of this, and the reason I think we're all here, is that at about 1 50 a.m., [6:10] the survivors, the hostages, the two employees of the Forest Service were released. And I'm so [6:20] incredibly proud of that. Our teams did an amazing job. It was a large incident. And I can tell you, [6:30] it's probably the smoothest thing that I've seen in many years. Around 2 30 a.m. following the release [6:40] of the survivors, we were able to successfully communicate and get Mr. Hendrickson to come out [6:53] of the trailer. Also, his son, Phoenix Hendrickson. And that's a success. And hope no one misses that. [7:09] I want to reiterate a couple things that I'm impressed again with the response that I saw. [7:17] The ability to work with my friend and colleague, Sheriff Mike Johnson, all of our federal [7:26] counterparts in the state. And there are so many people up there. I can't, I, you would have to [7:31] have been there to see the response. But I want to thank a few folks. Cal OES, the Mount Shasta Police [7:39] Department, Homeland Security Investigations, Cal Fire, other local fire departments, the California [7:47] Highway Patrol, both in the air and with us on patrol. California Department of Fish and Wildlife, [7:56] their law enforcement, both in the air and with us on the ground. And of course, the United States [8:02] Forest Service law enforcement and other individuals, and the Federal Bureau investigation. [8:11] So, to every local, state, and federal partner, thank you immensely from my heart. You all demonstrated [8:21] something that I think demonstrates our greatest strength. And that is that our willingness to [8:28] serve together is powerful. And again, thank you very much. Hello everybody. My name is Michael Johnson, [8:41] M-I-C-H-A-E-L-J-O-H-N-S-O-N. I'm the Shasta County Sheriff coroner. Shasta County Sheriff's [8:49] Office role in this incident was a purely allied agency in support. We received a call from Sheriff [8:56] LaRue at approximately 20, 20 hours and immediately put together contingency of a full crisis response [9:06] unit to assist Sheriff LaRue and all the agencies involved in this incident. In total, the Shasta [9:13] County Sheriff's Department sent 30 personnel, well, sworn and non-sworn personnel, which included the [9:21] SWAT team, the sniper unit, hostage negotiations, a bomb unit, drones, and a lot of other support [9:29] personnel to this scene. We were there till the end of it with all the other agencies. And I got to tell [9:36] you folks, this is remote Northern California out in a rural area where it's tough to get resources in [9:45] and out. It's a small one lane road. It's probably about 2000 elevation up in a campsite area. It is [9:54] rough terrain and different than handling an incident within a city or in an urban environment and having [10:01] all the resources readily available. So being an allied partner of the Siskiya County Sheriff's Office [10:09] is nothing new to us as it is nothing new for us to call them and help us. The most impressive thing [10:15] about this whole operation was it is a collaboration and working closely with city, county, state, and federal [10:25] agencies across the board. As Sheriff LaRue mentioned, there's too many to try to name because we'll [10:31] obviously leave somebody out. We're grateful to have that cooperation, that type of working relationship [10:39] in the North state. It is not, it has not happened everywhere. And it was a good example of a use of [10:48] resources in the North state here. So that is something we should be proud of. And the successful [10:54] resolution of the incident, peaceful resolution, I might add, with the recovery of the two survivors [11:01] and the apprehension and what will ultimately be the prosecution of the two suspects is something for [11:08] everybody involved to be proud of. So I thank you again for your time and effort. Again, this is [11:13] something that we not only in the North state, but in law enforcement collectively can be proud of. Thank you. [11:21] Good afternoon. I'm Brian Tosh, E-R-I-A-N-T-O-S-H. I'm the acting special agent in charge for the FBI [11:39] Sacramento field office. Thank you for being here. First of all, the Shasta Trinity National Forest [11:45] and the communities that surround it are some of the most beautiful territories in our ALR. This [11:50] community is close knit, resilient, and strong, and we are proud to answer the call to help. Yesterday, [11:58] law enforcement at all levels, local, state, and federal, joined forces to safely resolve a hostage [12:05] situation that the gumboot can't proud. FBI Sacramento was contacted by the United States [12:12] Forest Service at approximately 12 to 20 p.m., and in coordination with Siskiyou County Sheriff's Office [12:18] immediately deployed resources to support our partners. Our agents in Redding immediately deployed to [12:25] support our law enforcement partners and help the two U.S. Forest Service employees who are taking [12:31] hostage. Our crisis negotiation team immediately engaged to help. Our FBI Sacramento SWAT team and [12:38] evidence response team also quickly deployed to support our law enforcement partners. We also contacted the [12:46] critical incident response group and requested the deployment of our hostage rescue team and other [12:54] assets from Quantico, Virginia. HRT is our elite tactical team. After hours of negotiation, the first hostage was [13:04] released. 15 minutes later, the second hostage was released. We are so proud of these survivors and are beyond [13:14] grateful for their release. Both are resting and will need some time to process this experience. At approximately [13:22] 2.30 a.m., Joseph Heinrichsen and his son, Phoenix Heinrichsen, surrendered. Joseph has been arrested on [13:30] federal kidnapping charges. At the time, he had an AR-15 and knives and claimed to have grenades. Crisis [13:39] situations like this don't often result in everyone leaving the scene safely. We are very proud of the [13:45] work everyone did today. We are thankful for the professionalism of all agencies involved, including [13:53] Siskiyou County Sheriff's Office, Shasta County Sheriff's Office, Sacramento County Sheriff's Office, [13:58] California Highway Patrol, California Office of Emergency Services, California Department of Fish and [14:04] Wildlife, U.S. Forest Service, DHS Homeland Security Investigations, and our surrounding FBI field offices who [14:12] also contribute. Together, we achieved something truly remarkable. This continues to be an ongoing [14:19] investigation. We appreciate your patience and we continue to seek the answers. You can help us too. [14:26] If you have first-hand information about Joseph or Phoenix Heinrichsen, please call 1-800-CALL-FBI [14:34] or submit a tip to tip.fbi.gov. Thank you. Good afternoon. I'm Eric Grant, United States Attorney for [14:48] the Eastern District of California. That's a long way of saying I'm the Chief Federal Prosecutor for this area [14:54] of California. And my office today, by criminal complaint, will charge both the elder Mr. Heinrichsen [15:03] and the younger Mr. Heinrichsen with a violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1201A-5. [15:13] That's kidnapping of a federal employee. And so the charging document, which we fully expect [15:22] United States Magistrate Judge to sign should be available on the website of the U.S. District Court [15:33] for the Eastern District of California later this afternoon. I also want to reiterate what you've heard [15:41] many times already, that this incident illustrates the great partnerships that local, state, and federal [15:53] officers and agencies have. And my office is proud to be part of that, proud to serve with these [16:04] officers and cooperate with these agencies. I would add that sometimes the news portrays [16:13] the state of California and its subdivisions as always in conflict with the federal government. And I [16:20] think this incident shows that that is not the case. We work well together. We're glad to support each [16:29] other. And we do, in fact, support each other very well. Thank you. And we'll now open it up for questions. [16:36] Um, can you spell, I heard Hendrickson and Heinrichsen. Can you please spell the last names first of all of [16:45] the two, um, gentlemen that were taken to, were arrested? I have that, uh, H E N R I C H S E N. [16:57] And do you have a hometown for them? I do not. Um, what were they, do you have a motive and why they [17:10] wanted to contact the FBI? What was that? We're still investigating. We have, you know, gathering [17:19] evidence. Uh, there's some motivations, but, uh, the individual talked to us originally and then [17:24] stopped talking to us. So we continue to investigate, have not answered all those questions for you. [17:29] And the two U S forest employees that, as I, you mentioned, it's a remote rabbit area. Um, [17:36] what were they doing in that area at the time of the, um, the kidnapping? They were just performing [17:42] their duties out in the forest. So we don't have specifics, but they were doing their typical jobs [17:46] that they would do. So that was a routine patrol. It was a routine job that they were performing. Do you [17:52] know by any chance how often, uh, they would patrol that area? Is it, you know, they weren't patrolling [17:57] there. They were just going to do their work and it was, it was some seasonal work that they would [18:01] do on a regular basis. So being a lane and what was that, what seasonal work? Yeah. So we're not [18:07] going to get into specifics in terms of specifically what they were doing, uh, but they were doing their, [18:11] performing their jobs, um, and just work that they would typically do. It wasn't anything above and [18:15] beyond or something different than what they would normally do. Alexis with KRCR. I'm wondering why the [18:21] community wasn't notified yesterday on the incident that had took place and not notified until today. [18:27] You know, I think there's a lot of negotiations that were going on. We did not want to threaten, [18:31] um, the potential outcome and we had a tremendous outcome that we're grateful for. So that's [18:36] specifically why we, we did not want to have any impairment of what was going on. And you could tell [18:40] by the skill of the folks that were involved in this, that they did a tremendous job. And, and had we [18:46] done something differently, um, they could have changed the outcome. So we're just grateful for the [18:50] outcome and, and we are tremendously, uh, supportive of our partners. It's been stating. [18:55] Did it start off with one hostage and then become two or was it always two hostages? [19:00] We had two employees there. Okay. How old are the suspects? Um, I don't know the age. [19:09] Anybody has the age. Yeah. [19:15] I can help you with one of those. Uh, so Joseph is, uh, 49 years of age. And as far as Phoenix, [19:26] uh, all I could share is that adult age. And that was, was it their trailer that they [19:35] took the two, um, employees into, or was that a forest service trailer? [19:39] I'm not exactly sure of the owner. However, it was a personal trailer. [19:49] What is the state of the hostages now? Did they suffer any injuries during this process? [19:53] So I do not know exactly. They, how it generally works when, when a hostage survivor is taken, [20:03] they're assessed at the scene. And then later there's follow-up just to make sure that they're [20:07] okay. Uh, I have not heard anything to the contrary. I believe that they are doing well. [20:11] Uh, but somebody has some. Would you be releasing the names at any time of those employees? [20:17] I'll leave that to the forest service. Would you not intend to release those names? If it's such [20:22] time that they want to release those names, that would be up to those employees, but they are home. [20:26] They have got no. Would you be willing to release their agents? No. Okay. And I, there were reports [20:36] of a, um, the FBI bringing in a, uh, Boeing 757 into Reading transport personnel, FBI personnel to help [20:43] out here. Is that accurate? It is accurate. That means, sorry. Yeah. It's accurate that, uh, HRT came from [20:52] Quantico and I believe it was a 757. And why was the decision made to bring FBI agents all the way [21:02] from Quantico to this situation? Um, I, I, I think as, uh, folks up here, uh, talked enough, [21:10] it's a dynamic situation, right? So at any point it can go from, uh, under control to very dangerous. [21:20] And we felt we had the time and we had the perimeter because of the Siskiyou, uh, county [21:25] or sheriff's office. So we felt we had time better to get them spun up and out here just in case. And [21:31] they were actually able to arrive at the time. So otherwise, you know, we definitely feel we could [21:37] handle it locally, but it's a national asset and this is what they're trained to do. And did Joseph, [21:44] did Joseph and Phoenix, any history with law enforcement here in the area? Was law enforcement [21:50] familiar with them? I can share from, from the sheriff's office and to my knowledge that [21:58] we don't have a history with either of them. Thank you. Thank you.