Disgrutnled nutcase goes on ramage with amored bulldozer (A-Team Style)

[nmfire]

Well this is the nutcase-of-the-month. This guy makes the nutcase who stole the tank on RealTV look like a saint. This guy watched too many episodes of the A-Team to make this thing.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,121872,00.html

GRANBY, Colo. — 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 (search) team cut their way into the machine with a blowtorch early Saturday, authorities said.


Grand County Emergency Management Director Jim Holahan confirmed that the driver, identified by the town manager as Marvin Heemeyer, appeared to have shot himself.

Heemeyer plowed the armor-plated bulldozer into the town hall, a former mayor's home and at least five other buildings Friday before the machine ground to a halt in the wreckage of a warehouse.

City officials said he was angry over a zoning dispute and fines from city code violations at his business.

Authorities 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. After the third explosion failed, officials cut their way in with a blowtorch, Holahan said.

A statement from Grand County Undersheriff Glen Trainor said the driver was found around 2 a.m.

Holahan said Heemeyer was armed with a .50-caliber weapon but appeared to be deliberately avoiding injuring anyone during the rampage, which began Friday at about 3 p.m. No other injuries were reported.

Trainor said the dozer's armor plates consisted of two sheets of half-inch steel with a layer of concrete between them.

Grand County Commissioner Duane Daley said Heemeyer apparently used a video camera and two monitors found inside to guide the dozer. Two guns were mounted in front and aimed through portals. Other portals were cut in the back.

It was unclear how many guns were found with Heemeyer. Authorities speculated Heemeyer he may have used a homemade crane found in his garage to lower the armor hull over the dozer and himself.

"Once he tipped that lid shut, he knew he wasn't getting out," Daly said.

Investigators searched the garage where they believe Heemeyer built the vehicle and found cement, armor and steel.

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.

"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.

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.

"He just kept shooting," Moore said. "The dozer was still going. He threw what looked like a flash-bang down the exhaust. It didn't do a thing."

A flash-bang produces a blinding flash and earsplitting boom designed to stun a suspect.

"Gunfire was just ringing out everywhere," said Sandra Tucker, who saw the bulldozer begin the rampage from her office on Main Street. "It sounded to me like an automatic rifle, firing about every second."

At least 40 deputies, Colorado State Patrol officers, federal park and forest rangers and a SWAT team from nearby Jefferson County (search) were at the scene.

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. 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.

When he paid the fine, he enclosed a note with his check saying "Cowards," Hale said.

"We felt he was venting his frustration that he didn't get his way," Hale said of the note. "We didn't think he was going to do something like this."

Trainor said he believes Heemeyer spent months armoring the bulldozer, and investigators were looking into whether he had help.

Hale said owners of all the buildings that were damaged had some connection to Heemeyer's disputes.

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. "Dick" Thompson and the municipal building, which also housed a library.

Crumpled patrol cars and service trucks lay in the dozer's path. A pickup was folded nearly in half and had been rammed through the wall of a building.

Gov. Bill Owens traveled Friday night to Granby, about 50 miles west of Denver and 10 miles south of Rocky Mountain National Park (search).

State aid will be available to help rebuild local government buildings, and state officials will help businesses seek federal help, said Mike Beasley, director of the state Department of Local Affairs.

William Hertel, owner of High Altitude Audio, said the bulldozer drove by his business at mid-afternoon, crushing aspen trees and light poles after the rampage began around 3 p.m.

"I was up on the roof when he came by. I got down and got my wife and kids out of the back of the building," Hertel said. He said he had heard numerous shots.

The scene was reminiscent of a 1998 rampage in Alma, another town in the Colorado Rockies. Authorities said Tom Leask shot a man to death, then used a town-owned front-end loader to heavily damage the town's post office, fire department, water department and town hall.

[RspctFrmCalgary]

HOLY CRAP!

[Weruj1]

My father is my City's Zoning Inspector........I read about this on the front page of the local paper........I dont think we have any dozers in our town nor auto body shops ! YIKES !

[Dalmatian90]

We have video

http://news4colorado.com/topstories/...156173524.html

Wonder if any police chiefs out there are writing homeland security grant apps for "TOW Missle" as we speak

[Weruj1]

maybe we should get a bunch of them dozers >?

[dmleblanc]

Wouldn't ya love to hear the tapes of the first 911 call to come in on this one?

[hwoods]

If all the air tankers hadn't been grounded, they could have called in a borate drop.....

[backsteprescue123]

.....BUMP.....

WHAT IN THE HE*L WAS THIS WACKO THINKING??

This guy had waaay too much time on his hands.

[nmfire]

.....BUMP.....

WHAT IN THE HE*L WAS THIS WACKO THINKING??

This guy had waaay too much time on his hands.

Apparently, so do you.

[backsteprescue123]

Apparently, so do you.

Ouch, that hurts!

I was searching the forums for a topic, came across it and voila , bumped.

[Firetacoma1]

A buddy of mine works for the EMS provider for Grandby... he wasn't on shift that day but some of his coworkers said it was the craziest thing they've ever seen.

[MalahatTwo7]

with dozens of officers walking ahead or behind it, firing into the machine and shouting at townspeople to flee.

What kinda gets me, is that this thing is armoured, right? So why would you expend huge amounts of ammo shooting at something that short of an 84mm rocket IS NOT going to penetrate? About all you're gonna get is shrapnel flying everywhere, increasing collateral damage/injuries.

Apparently there were no (not reported) additional injuries, but still, all that lead flying around. What were they thinking?

[tanker5117]

What were they thinking?

they weren't.

Tanker

[lvwrench]

Sounds like the guys last nerve had been stepped on and he was just not going to take it anymore. Either that or his wife, if he was married, may have been nagging him. Sorry for that, take my wife; please. Maybe we should have put him to work on armoured vehicles for Iraq.I agree with the fact that the enforcement people were sure wasting their time shooting unless they needed the practice. Very inventive piece of machinery.

[CaptainS]

I think BA, Murdoc, and the Face Man could have done a better job

[MalahatTwo7]

I think BA, Murdoc, and the Face Man could have done a better job

Only cuz they would have found a better solution than suicide.

[Dalmatian190]

Yes, because on the A-Team, you would have put the gun in your mouth, pulled the trigger, and magically been thrown from the vehicle without a scratch!

[LaFireEducator]

Just imagine what damage a woman with PMS could do if she got a hold of one of those things ????

And by the way, none of this guy's neighbors noticed he was building a friggin' tank in the backyard ???

[BFDNJFF]

Wow Saturday, June 05, 2004 !

[mcaldwell]

Still funny. I wonder how many cop cars or army jeeps went flipping through the air after hitting sand piles during the "chase".


And you're right Rick. Nothing a little Carl G action couldn't take care of.