ONLY CHICKEN COOP LEFT AS 10 BUILDINGS BURN

VANDALIA - 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."