![]() A pickup was folded nearly in half and had been rammed through the wall of a building. “Dick” Thompson and the municipal building, which also housed a library.Ĭrumpled patrol cars and service trucks lay in the dozer’s path. The buildings included the cement plant, a utility company, a bank, a newspaper office, a hardware store and warehouse, the home of former Mayor L.R. Hale said owners of all the buildings that were damaged had some connection to Heemeyer’s disputes. Trainor said he believes Heemeyer spent months armoring the bulldozer, and investigators were looking into whether he had help. “We didn’t think he was going to do something like this.” “We felt he was venting his frustration that he didn’t get his way,” Hale said of the note. When he paid the fine, he enclosed a note with his check saying “Cowards,” Hale said. Heemeyer also was fined $2,500 in a separate case for not having a septic tank and for other city code violations at his business, Hale said. Town manager Tom Hale said Heemeyer was angry after losing a zoning dispute that allowed a cement plant to be built near his muffler shop. “It sounded to me like an automatic rifle, firing about every second.”Īt least 40 deputies, Colorado State Patrol officers, federal park and forest rangers and a SWAT team from nearby Jefferson County were at the scene. ![]() “Gunfire was just ringing out everywhere,” said Sandra Tucker, who saw the bulldozer begin the rampage from her office on Main Street. It didn’t do a thing.”Ī flash-bang produces a blinding flash and earsplitting boom designed to stun a suspect. He threw what looked like a flash-bang down the exhaust. One officer, later identified as Trainor, was perched on top, firing shot after shot into the top and once dropping an explosive down the exhaust pipe. “It looked like a futuristic tank,” said Rod Moore, who watched the dozer rumble past within 15 feet of his auto garage and towing company. Residents of this mountain tourist town of 2,200 described a bizarre scene as the bulldozer slowly crashed through buildings, trees and lampposts, with dozens of officers walking ahead or behind it, firing into the machine and shouting at townspeople to flee. Investigators searched the garage where they believe Heemeyer built the vehicle and found cement, armor and steel. “Once he tipped that lid shut, he knew he wasn’t getting out,” Dailey said. Authorities speculated Heemeyer he may have used a homemade crane found in his garage to lower the armor hull over the dozer and himself. It was unclear how many guns were found with Heemeyer. Two guns were mounted in front and aimed through portals. Grand County Commissioner Duane Dailey said Heemeyer apparently used a video camera and two monitors found inside to guide the dozer. Trainor said the dozer’s armor plates consisted of two sheets of half-inch steel with a foot of concrete between them. 50-caliber weapon but appeared to be deliberately avoiding injuring anyone during the rampage, which began Friday at about 3 p.m. After the third explosion failed, officials cut their way in with a blowtorch, said Grand County Emergency Management Director Jim Holahan.Ī statement from Grand County Undersheriff Glen Trainor said the driver was found around 2 a.m. Looking through a square-foot hole cut into the metal casing, officers could see Heemeyer’s wounded body with a gun lying nearby, Johnson said.Ĭity officials said he was angry over a zoning dispute and fines from city code violations at his business.Īuthorities detonated three explosions and fired at least 200 rounds against the heavy steel plates welded to the bulldozer, which looked like an upside down Dumpster. ![]() ![]() Grand County Sheriff Rod Johnson said the driver, identified by the town manager as Marvin Heemeyer, appeared to have shot himself. GRANBY ” A muffler shop owner who plowed a makeshift armored bulldozer into several buildings after a dispute with city officials was found dead of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound after a SWAT team cut their way into the machine with a blowtorch early Saturday, authorities said. Officers clambered on top, apparently trying to talk to the man,whose condition was unknown. The bulldozer had come to a stop in the rubble of a metal warehouse. A muffler shop owner reportedly angry at local government over a zoning dispute tore through town in an armored bulldozer, smashing buildings and firing shots as police tried to stop the slow-motion rampage. AP PhotoIn this image from television, law enforcement personnel investigate the scene where a bulldozer crashed into a metal warehouse in Granby on Friday. ![]()
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