A muffler shop owner reportedly angry at local government over a zoning dispute tore through town Friday in an armored bulldozer, smashing buildings and firing shots as police tried to stop the slow-motion rampage. The siege left a trail of splintered structures in this mountain tourist town, but there were no reports of injuries. ``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.''
By late afternoon, the bulldozer had come to a stop stuck in the rubble of a metal warehouse. Officers clambered on top, apparently trying to talk to the man, identified by the town manager as Marvin Heemeyer. Hours later, officers still surrounded the bulldozer, and there had been no sign of movement inside, County manager Lurline Curran said. Heemeyer's condition was unknown. Heemeyer was angry after losing a zoning dispute over land near his muffler shop, town manager Tom Hale said. He also had been fined $2,500 in a separate case for not having a septic tank and 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.'' Gov. Bill Owens traveled to Granby Friday night to assess the damage. The cab of the yellow bulldozer was protected with black metal plates apparently welded on over a period of weeks in his muffler shop. ``It looked like a futuristic tank,'' said Rod Moore, speaking by phone from his auto garage and towing company. He said the bulldozer rumbled past within 15 feet of his shop, with an officer perched on top, firing shots into the top. At one point, he said the officer dropped some kind of explosive down the exhaust pipe. ``He just kept shooting,'' Moore said. ``The dozer was still going ... it didn't do a thing.''
Authorities with the Grand County sheriff's office and town police did not return calls. The State Patrol said all roads in and out of the town 50 miles west of Denver were closed. Curran said at least some of the wrecked buildings belonged to people involved in one or both of the disputes. ``He evidently proceeded in destroying the properties of people involved with that,'' Curran said. She said she had heard the man spent two months fortifying the bulldozer in his shop. Ian Daugherty, a bakery owner, said the driver was upset a concrete plant had been built too close to his business. The driver, Daugherty added, ``went out of his way'' not to harm anyone. State Patrol Maj. Jim Wolfinbarger said officers told him the driver had aimed his weapon at propane tanks.
The bulldozer also knocked out natural gas service to City Hall and a cement plant, damaging a truck and part of a utility service center, Xcel Energy spokesman Mark Stutz said. Granby is a town of about 2,200 at nearly 8,000 feet. It is near the Winter Park ski resort and not far from the edge of Rocky Mountain National Park.
Shawn Nelson Steals A Tank
In May 1995, the San Diego area was witness to one of the weirdest criminal activities in recent memory. An unemployed plumber named Shawn Nelson stole a tank from a National Guard compound and drove it wildly through the streets of the suburb of Clairemont, running down light posts, fire hydrants and parked vehicles (but, thankfully, not any people). Nelson gave the police a lengthy chase before he got the tank stuck on a highway divider. The police surrounded the immobilized tank, pried it open with bolt cutters and ordered Nelson to come out. When Nelson refused, the police opened a fatal volley of gunfire into the tank.
Shawn Nelson was only 35 when he was killed, yet his brief life was riddled with considerable problems. An Army veteran who left the service to become a plumber, Nelson fell into a severe drug and alcohol habit. He also became obsessed with the notion that his backyard was home to a gold mine, and the surplus of his time became devoted to digging a mineshaft in search of the buried treasure. (The film estimates the shaft went either 17 or 25 feet into the ground--no one seems to have an accurate measurement.) Nelson's pre-occupation with his gold hunt led him to file for a mineral rights permit with the municipal government.
Unfortunately, Nelson's numerous demons eventually overpowered him. Physically and financially bankrupt, facing a foreclosure on his mortgage and unable to pay for his various addictions, Nelson planned to make one final statement against a world which he felt betrayed him. Recalling his Army training and remembering the National Guard had a compound in his neighborhood, Nelson stole the tank and went on his destructive joyride.
There was the subject of a documentary called Cul-De-Sac.
Thomas Leask - Another Bulldozer Fan
A part-time snowplow driver on Friday admitted killing the former mayor and using a huge construction vehicle in a demolition run around town, punching holes in four public buildings and knocking out water and phone service. ''I plead guilty to all of it,'' Thomas Leask, 50, said in court. Despite his request, the public defender's office was ordered to appoint an attorney. Leask was arrested about 4 1/2 hours after the rampage in a grove behind his burning house, which sheriff's authorities said he had set on fire. He was armed with a .45-caliber pistol and a rifle. Residents said Leask had been battling with town officials, objecting to being forced to use the town's water system.
Leask rammed a stolen military surplus front-end loader into the water treatment plant Thursday night, knocking out service and sending thousands of gallons of water into the streets, where it formed sheets of ice. He also attacked town hall, a fire station and the Post Office in the same way, knocking holes that measured 10 feet high and 15 feet wide. Residents in this hamlet of 150 people 65 miles southwest of Denver, near the Breckenridge ski resort, were advised to boil drinking water until the plant was repaired. The damage also cut off telephone service. ''He did a pretty good job of shutting the town down,'' said Sheriff's Sgt. Don Anthony. Leask was ordered held without bail for investigation of first-degree murder, first-degree arson and criminal mischief. He said he didn't want a lawyer, but the public defender's office was ordered to appoint one. Investigators were trying to determine a motive for the rampage. A friend, Jeff Oberholtzer, said Leask was ''not a violent kind of guy or anything. I liked the guy. He always kept to himself a lot.''
A neighbor, David Rowe, 27, was arrested after allegedly trying to thwart officers' efforts to arrest Leask. ''He opened his window and he was hollering out, letting him know where all our positions are. We decided that wasn't fair so we arrested him,'' said sheriff's Sgt. Don Anthony. The body of former mayor Willie Morrison was found inside town hall where he had been attending a meeting, said Colorado Bureau of Investigation agent Mark Wilson. He had been shot to death and six Molotov cocktails were found nearby, police said. Morrison and several town council members had resigned last week in a dispute over a newly hired marshal.
Mac McChesney, who works in a local real estate office, said his son had also been mayor of the town but had quit because he said the situation ''is too volatile.''' ''This is like any other place in the mountains,'' he said. ''People come up here to get away from government.'' At 10,578 feet, Alma touts itself as the highest town in the country. Pat Pocius, a member of the local Chamber of Commerce, said Morrison, who was in his 40s, was a gifted sculptor who specialized in welding large pieces of art. ''He was just starting to do big things as an artist,'' she said.
With the town at a standstill, dozens of residents gathered Friday to watch as investigators sifted through debris and workers chipped away at ice covering the streets. ''I think this was just one of those things,'' said McChesney. ''Somebody just went over the edge. Willie would have been the last person in this town someone would have killed.'' Said Pocius: ''This isn't normal for anywhere.''
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