A bombshell audio captured tense moments because the FBI negotiated with a person holding two U.S. Forest Service staff’ hostage in Shasta-Trinity Nationwide Forest on Friday.
Within the scanner audio reviewed by the California Put up, a person figuring out himself on the air as Charles Perry, who later turned out to be 49-year-old Joseph Charles Henrichsen, demanded that the FBI come and meet him close to Gumboot Lake.
“I’ve two biologists in my custody proper now… I’ve tried to make contact with the FBI by means of legislation enforcement… I’m requesting FBI investigators converse to [me] in order that I can launch these hostages,” he mentioned.
Henrichsen and his 23-year-old son, Phoenix, allegedly zip‑tied and held two Forest Service workers inside a trailer close to a distant a part of the Shasta-Trinity Nationwide Forest situated north of Redding. The employees had been conducting area work within the space after they had been kidnapped at gunpoint.
Over the radio, dispatchers first tried to get a direct contact quantity for Henrichsen. “Do we have now an excellent telephone quantity I can move alongside in order that they’ll make contact with you instantly?,” the operator mentioned.
“Destructive,” responded Henrichsen, asking the FBI to satisfy him in particular person.
Hours after deputies first responded and used drones to find the trailer, an FBI negotiator — figuring out himself as Russell from the FBI’s Sacramento workplace — is heard making an attempt repeatedly to succeed in the campsite over a scratchy radio channel.
Russell couldn’t be heard clearly and Henrichsen directed him to maneuver in direction of a “Crimson Bronco.” Then Henrichsen delivered particular directions for the FBI as they got here nearer to the location.
“You’ll be able to carry a rifle with you so long as you’re not pointing at me. We are able to have a dialog. I’d counsel coming unarmed, however you already know, as a result of if in case you have one, that may set off one thing in me. You by no means know. Or you will have a rifle, and also you see me, that may set off one thing in you,” he mentioned over the radio.
The FBI agent mentioned they might drive as shut because the staff would allow them to. “Nobody’s gonna level weapons at you as we drive in,” Russel mentioned.
Authorities say the standoff, which led to the closure of the Gumboot Lake space in Siskiyou County, drew an enormous multi‑company response: a SWAT staff, sniper unit, bomb unit, and extra personnel, together with an FBI hostage rescue staff flown in from Quantico, Virginia. One legislation enforcement official later summarized the chance:
Round 1:50 am, the 2 Forest Service staff had been launched. US Legal professional Eric Grant mentioned the daddy and son are anticipated to face kidnapping fees involving federal workers.
Henrichsen has been arrested on federal kidnapping fees and faces a most penalty of life in jail and a $250,000 nice, if convicted. Prosecutors say a motive stays below investigation after the suspect stopped cooperating with authorities.
Throughout a press convention Friday, FBI Performing Particular Agent in Cost Brian Tosh, mentioned the state of affairs may have gone both manner. “Disaster conditions like this don’t usually end in everybody leaving the scene safely,” Tosh mentioned.
Henrichsen has beforehand been described as having a “spiraling psychological well being situation” in a separate Washington state case in 2022. The Bellingham Herald had reported that Henrichsen had been accused of a hate crime for allegedly harassing his owners of Russian and Ukrainian descent. An individual along with his title additionally beforehand owned a mortgage enterprise with licenses later suspended over charge‑assortment points.
His son Phoenix, recognized in on-line information, attended Bellingham Excessive College in Washington. Officers say neither suspect had a previous historical past with native legislation enforcement in Siskiyou County.
