Coroner's Report Confirms Tree Directly Struck Activist Logger Who Killed Earth First!er Told Activists He Shot Deputy Contact: Josh Brown 707/825-6598; Alicia Littletree 707/468-1660; Darryl Cherney 707/923-4949 Oct 5th, 1998 "A.E." Ammons, the logger who felled the tree that killed Earth First! activist David "Gypsy" Chain on September 17th near Carlotta, CA, revealed he had shot a deputy sheriff and complained of being a felon to activists the day before the fatal encounter. In another development, a Humboldt County Coroner's report to be released today substantiates eyewitness accounts that the tree cut by logger A.E. Ammons was indeed the tree that struck and killed Earth First! demonstrator Chain. This contradicts initial reports by Pacificl Lumber (PL) and Humboldt Sheriffs that Chain was killed by a "domino effect" where one tree hit another tree. "The coroner's finding calls into question other statements by Pacific Lumber about the invident including that Ammons had no idea anyone was in the area when he felled the tree in Chain's direction." said Alicia Littletree of Earth First! Chain was, in fact, less than 100 feet away from the tree Ammons felled. Ammons, whose full identity has been kept a secret from news media, issued other violent threats the day before he cut the 4' wide, 130' tall redwood, according to a video taken at the scene and eyewitnesses. According to Maya Watts, an Earth First! activist blockading a logging truck at the site on Sept 16th, the day before Chain was killed, "Ammons made many threats that day, including threatening to cut any tree we were tree-sitting in and stating that he wanted to beat tht three of us into the ground." Video taken one hour prior to Chall fuckin;, I'll make sure I got a tree comin' this way!" Ammons was recorded screaming. A.E. Ammons' full name has not been revealed, nor has any of his background. Even more startling is the failure of sheriffs to release any potential rap sheet that would confirm Ammons' claim to activists that he shot a deputy in the arm after a barroom righ with a third party. Additionally, drug tests of Ammons, if they were taken at all, have not been made public. Quite the opposite, Ammons has been treated more like an expert witness rather than a suspect in the case. Ammons was even taken to the crime scene by Sheriffs on Sept 26th to show investigators around as a guide rather than as a perpetrator. "Detective Freeman's attitude during the interviews was more like a defense attorney for A.E. than an objective investigator," said Earth First!'s attorney, Richard Jay Moller, in a letter to Humboldt District Attorney Terry Farmer. Moller's letter further points out that alleged PL's complicity is not being investigated. "It is critical that an independent investigator be assigned who can investigate what PL's management told its employees and loggers to do when confronted by protesters in the woods." Chain's killing is particularly poignant in the wake of the California and Federal Legislature's half billion dollar appropriation for Headwaters Forest acquisition. PL could lose its timber operator's license and its ability to acquire a Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP) if they are found guilty of violating the law on their forest land and they are required to have an HCP in order to complete the Headwaters agreement. The California Dept. of Forestry issued PL two forestry violations for the plan in which Chain was killed and manslaughter or murder charges may be pending. "With $500 million at stake, its unlikely the DA or the Sheriffs are going to go after MAXXAM" said Earth First!er Darryl Cherney. Earth First! is maintaining a 24 hour blockade/encampment dubbed "Gypsy Free State" on the logging road to preserve the scene of Gypsy's death and is calling for the addition of what is now called Gypsy Mountain to the adjacent Grizzly Creek State Park. In addition to the impressive roadside blockade on Highway 36, Earth First! is maintaining three tree sits, including two sitters in their third month in the ancient redwoods of Bell-Lawrence Creek, one on Gypsy Mountain and Julia Butterfly's 10-month long sit at Stafford.
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