Capt. Zeroth
Loftwing
June 4th, 2004
Four years ago on this day, Marvin Heemeyer of Granby, Colorado was through with the trouble of his town's zoning problems. Heemeyer had owned a small muffler shop towards the edges of town. Over a zoning dispute, he was fined and lost a great deal of money.
The frustrated mechanic did what anyone else would do: He modified a bulldozer with 2 inches of steel, followed by a layer of concrete, followed by a final layer of 6 inches of steel. He cut gun holes on the sides and mounted cameras on the front and back. For armament the bulldozer was fitted with a .50 caliber semi-automatic Barrett M82 sniper rifle pointing out to the rear, a semi-auto FN FNC assault-rifle pointing out to the front, and a .223 Ruger Mini-14 to the right. After he was inside, he permanently sealed the top from the inside.
He began a rampage through the town, and drove through the wall of his former business, the concrete plant, the Town Hall, the office of the local newspaper that editorialized against him, the home of a former judge's widow, and a hardware store owned by another man Heemeyer named in a lawsuit, as well as others. Owners of all the buildings that were damaged had some connection to Heemeyer's disputes. In total, he destroyed 13 buildings.
One officer dropped a flash-bang grenade down the bulldozer's exhaust pipe, with no immediate apparent effect. Local and state police, including a SWAT team, walked behind and beside the bulldozer occasionally firing, but the armored bulldozer was impervious to their shots. At one point during the rampage, Undersheriff Glenn Trainor managed to climb atop the bulldozer and, in the words of Allen Best, rode the bulldozer "like a bronc-buster, trying to figure out a way to get a bullet inside the dragon."
Two things conspired against Heemeyer as he reduced the Gambles hardware store to rubble. His machine was belching smoke and leaking various fluids, and Gambles had a small basement. The bulldozer's engine failed and Heemeyer dropped one tread into the basement and couldn't get out. The bulldozer became stuck. About a minute later, one of the SWAT team members who had swarmed around the machine reported hearing a single gunshot from inside the sealed cab. The coroner stated that Heemeyer used his .357-caliber handgun to kill himself. No one else was harmed in his rampage.
Heemeyer's body was subsequently removed by police with a crane, though it took twelve hours for them to cut through the hatch with a blowtorch.
-Paraphrased from Wikipedia
http://video.google.com/videoplay?d...8&q=killdozer&ei=vutGSOmrC4Gc-AHh-PSUDA&hl=en
http://video.google.com/videoplay?d...1&q=killdozer&ei=1uxGSMOxCoqs-wGdveGpDA&hl=en
Hero or Terrorist?
Four years ago on this day, Marvin Heemeyer of Granby, Colorado was through with the trouble of his town's zoning problems. Heemeyer had owned a small muffler shop towards the edges of town. Over a zoning dispute, he was fined and lost a great deal of money.
The frustrated mechanic did what anyone else would do: He modified a bulldozer with 2 inches of steel, followed by a layer of concrete, followed by a final layer of 6 inches of steel. He cut gun holes on the sides and mounted cameras on the front and back. For armament the bulldozer was fitted with a .50 caliber semi-automatic Barrett M82 sniper rifle pointing out to the rear, a semi-auto FN FNC assault-rifle pointing out to the front, and a .223 Ruger Mini-14 to the right. After he was inside, he permanently sealed the top from the inside.
He began a rampage through the town, and drove through the wall of his former business, the concrete plant, the Town Hall, the office of the local newspaper that editorialized against him, the home of a former judge's widow, and a hardware store owned by another man Heemeyer named in a lawsuit, as well as others. Owners of all the buildings that were damaged had some connection to Heemeyer's disputes. In total, he destroyed 13 buildings.
One officer dropped a flash-bang grenade down the bulldozer's exhaust pipe, with no immediate apparent effect. Local and state police, including a SWAT team, walked behind and beside the bulldozer occasionally firing, but the armored bulldozer was impervious to their shots. At one point during the rampage, Undersheriff Glenn Trainor managed to climb atop the bulldozer and, in the words of Allen Best, rode the bulldozer "like a bronc-buster, trying to figure out a way to get a bullet inside the dragon."
Two things conspired against Heemeyer as he reduced the Gambles hardware store to rubble. His machine was belching smoke and leaking various fluids, and Gambles had a small basement. The bulldozer's engine failed and Heemeyer dropped one tread into the basement and couldn't get out. The bulldozer became stuck. About a minute later, one of the SWAT team members who had swarmed around the machine reported hearing a single gunshot from inside the sealed cab. The coroner stated that Heemeyer used his .357-caliber handgun to kill himself. No one else was harmed in his rampage.
Heemeyer's body was subsequently removed by police with a crane, though it took twelve hours for them to cut through the hatch with a blowtorch.
-Paraphrased from Wikipedia
http://video.google.com/videoplay?d...8&q=killdozer&ei=vutGSOmrC4Gc-AHh-PSUDA&hl=en
http://video.google.com/videoplay?d...1&q=killdozer&ei=1uxGSMOxCoqs-wGdveGpDA&hl=en
Hero or Terrorist?
