Teammate’s death stuns rescue unit

Adrienne Packer

Thursday, March 26, 1998 | 10:20 a.m.

MOUNT CHARLESTON -- When Russell Peterson wasn't risking his life to save someone else's, the Metro Police officer was probably somewhere in the mountains honing his skills as a rock and ice climber.

After 1 1/2 years on the four-member Search and Rescue team, the Las Vegas Metro officer earned the reputation as an expert climber and a reliable crew leader.

"He committed an awful lot of time to this," Lt. Rick Alba, a Metro Police spokesman, said. "When he got paged after hours, he had a smile on his face."

Peterson's death Tuesday in a rugged area near the Mount Charleston Lodge stunned fellow crew members and the team of some 30 volunteers who routinely work together to locate lost or injured hikers throughout the valley.

"The emotions are indescribable," Metro Sheriff Jerry Keller said Wednesday morning after the entire Search and Rescue squad brought Peterson's body down the mountainside. "It was important to every single one of them to be a part of it."

Peterson, who celebrated his 40th birthday Monday, was training with a volunteer on a frozen waterfall on Echo Face near Cathedral Rock when a chunk of ice broke free, narrowly missing the volunteer and crushing Peterson.

The volunteer, who Metro Police declined to name because he is not a sworn officer, hiked the two-hour trek back to the lodge and notified emergency crews after the 5 p.m accident.

Fellow Search and Rescue officers Gary Sumption and Mark Baumann climbed to the body Tuesday night and stayed with Peterson until daylight. A troop of rescuers used snowshoes and ice picks to reach the trio Wednesday morning.

"They wanted to go there to be with him and to protect him," Alba said of Sumption and Baumann.

The Clark County coroner's office said an autopsy performed Wednesday afternoon on the eight-year Metro veteran listed the cause of death as a broken neck.

Peterson's funeral is scheduled for 2 p.m. Friday at the Air Support Search and Rescue Section's hangar next to the North Las Vegas Air Terminal.

While Tuesday's tragedy was quickly ruled an accident, Alba said investigators may look into why the ice gave way to prevent future deaths. He would not speculate whether Tuesday's warm temperatures contributed to the ice avalanche.

Air Support and Search and Rescue Lt. Dwight Mahan said Wednesday that Peterson and the volunteer returned from ice climbing classes in Ouray, Colo., in February and were practicing techniques.

Tuesday was Peterson's day off, but the officer asked the department for permission to climb in exchange for training hours.

"That was him," Mahan said. "He went to that school and came back looking at ways to teach the new techniques and enhance our skills in climbing. That was his area of expertise -- climbing."

Metro held a "stress debriefing" meeting Wednesday afternoon, but that won't help fellow crew members get over the loss of a popular officer and friend.

"You can't meet a nicer guy," said Mahan, who worked with Peterson for two years. "He was enthusiastic and energetic; always looking for something to do. He will be sadly missed."

Peterson is the second officer the small, tight-knit band of Search and Rescue members has lost in strange accidents during the past two years.

Metro Police Sgt. Jerald Passer was killed in November 1996, after a stray bullet struck him in the back of the head while he was dirt biking in the desert.

The errant bullet, which traveled about 1,050 feet before striking Passer, came from a weapon used by a family that was target shooting nearby. The Search and Rescue pilot was in a coma for several days before he died.

Mahan said the two deaths so close together will be difficult to work through.

"The hardest part is for our people, we're a small unit," Mahan said. "The officers are very close and they depend on each other. In their operations, they are basically trusting each other with their lives. It is tough when you lose people."