Granby rampage

'Dozer rampage driver found dead

Post / Hyoung Chang
An emergency medical services officer walks past a shattered corner of Granby’s town hall, one of the buildings damaged by a mechanic who took a bulldozer on a rampage through the small Grand County town Friday. “He has been targeting all the people he was mad at,” said one Granby resident.

Granby, 5:30 a.m. - A muffler shop owner who plowed his makeshift armored bulldozer into several buildings over a dispute with city officials was found dead in the machine this morning after a SWAT team gained access with explosives, authorities said.

A statement from Grand County Undersheriff Glen Trainor confirmed that Marvin Heemeyer was dead but did not give a cause.

Heemeyer went on a rampage Friday, crashing his fortified bulldozer into several downtown businesses and government buildings, including the town hall and library.

Authorities identified Heemeyer, 52, as the man who terrified the mountain town of 1,500 people by careening the armor-plated bulldozer into buildings and vehicles along the town's main street. Witnesses said he fired a number of shots at police officers who struggled to stop him.

The destruction ended after more than an hour when the bulldozer smashed into Gambles department store and stalled there.

Friday night, authorities tried to blast holes through the armor but failed. Heemeyer, who had welded himself completely into the moving fortress, remained inside.

No one was injured in the rampage, but at least nine buildings were heavily damaged. U.S. 40 was closed to traffic late Friday, and residents and businesses downtown were evacuated for several hours.

Town residents said Heemeyer was upset about a concrete plant that was built on the west edge of town near a muffler shop he owned.

Other residents were also opposed to the plant, but Heemeyer was among the most vocal opponents.

Heemeyer often threatened to get back at town officials, the concrete plant and others who opposed him, said Matt Reed, who has known Heemeyer about seven years.

But Reed never thought it would come to gunfire and destruction.

"Marv, he is just a friendly face in the community that everyone knows," Reed said.

"We didn't imagine him doing this. It is not in his demeanor at all."

The incident started about 3 p.m. when Heemeyer arrived at the Mountain Park Concrete plant.

The bulldozer took out a white SUV and a forklift at the plant. It also damaged another building at the site and then headed 4 to 5 miles through town.

Heemeyer was firing a weapon from inside the hulking bulldozer, and police returned fire, witnesses said.

At one point, Grand County Undersheriff Glen Trainor rode atop the fortified bulldozer trying to gain entry.

"It looks like Baghdad," said Gary Redfield, a radio reporter for KRKY 930-AM who covered the story in Granby from its beginning Friday.

The town was evacuated as gunfire ripped cars and buildings.

"Bam, bam, bam, bam. They (police) must have pumped 200 shots into that thing," Redfield said. "It is amazing no one got killed. It is amazing no one got hurt."

Joy Hetzler, a second-grade teacher in Granby, was an eyewitness to the destruction at the city hall and library.

Post / Hyoung Chang
A police officer surveys the facade of the Liberty Savings Bank, damaged in Friday’s attack by the muffler-shop owner who smashed a bulldozer into buildings and fired on police.
Hetzler said that she got a reverse 911 call evacuating sections of Granby. She said she felt safe in her house, although it was close to town hall.

"It seemed like he was targeting buildings, not just people. And the other thing, it just seemed wiser to stay here, out of the way, as opposed to go out and try to go somewhere else," Hetzler said.

Casey Farrell, the owner of Gambles, was on the Granby Board of Trustees that approved the concrete plant that Heemeyer so strongly opposed.

Farrell said that Heemeyer targeted businesses, such as his own, where members of the board that approved the plant worked.

Farrell said the planning commission and the Granby Board of Trustees required the concrete plant owners take a number of steps to ensure that the plant would be clean.

But he said Heemeyer, who had been a business acquaintance, claimed the plant would ruin his business.

Farrell said Heemeyer stopped coming to his store, although they previously had gotten along fine. He said he was shocked by the action taken by Heemeyer. "It was totally out of the blue," said Farrell. "I did not expect this."

In 2000, Heemeyer unsuccessfully sued the town in an attempt to stop construction of the concrete plant, according to court records.

Two cars in the Granby town hall lot were no match for the armored bulldozer that Marvin Heemeyer drove through town Friday.
Peter Dietze, Heemeyer's attorney, said he hadn't spoken to his client since the case ended in 2002. He only knew him from the year and a half they worked together.

And while he didn't know Heemeyer well, Dietze said there was nothing exceptionally troubling about the man.

Heemeyer didn't seem overly aggressive or unbalanced to him. "He seemed like an average individual to me," Dietze said.

Granby Town Manager Tom Hale said Heemeyer targeted specific buildings and property owners.

"At least the buildings I know of all had something to do with one zoning decision," Hale said, referring to the concrete plant.

Hale said the town fined Heemeyer $2,500 for keeping "junk cars on his land."

Heemeyer lived in nearby Grand Lake and sold the muffler business about nine months ago, Hale said.

Gov. Bill Owens toured the scene Friday night, and the state will seek to assist in the town's recovery, he said.

"A lot of systems worked well; this could have been much worse," Owens said.

"A lot of brave people were involved in terms of being ahead of this 'dozer, protecting and warning and helping make sure there wasn't any loss of life ..." he added.

Ken Heemeyer of Castlewood, S.D., the suspect's younger brother, said his family was in shock Friday night and awaiting confirmation that Marvin Heemeyer was driving the bulldozer.

Townspeople had dubbed it the "Armageddon Tank."

"All the public needs to know is that Marv was one of the best guys out there," Ken Heemeyer said.

"He would bend over backwards for anybody. He was perfect, but something snapped."

Ken Heemeyer said his brother had long-brewing zoning complaints with the town.

Marvin Heemeyer was God- loving and "would fight anything that was wrong," his brother said.

But Doug and Christie Baker had a somewhat different experience with Heemeyer.

"He has threatened my husband's life," Christie Baker said. "He threatened my husband over a muffler."

Baker said they had taken one of their trucks to Heemeyer's shop, and he installed the incorrect type of muffler. When they refused to pay, Heemeyer made a threat, she said.

"It was word-of-mouth - 'I'm going to kill him,"' she said.

Comments

[barry maxfield]

I am sure we will never learn the whole story behind the Granby situation. But I wonder, what governmental decision would cause a man to take a bulldozer worth thousand of dollars, armor plate it with steel and drive out to attack his enemies knowing full well that he probably wouldn't live.
I am sure that our beloved main stream media liars and the "authorities" will make sure the truth never sees the light of day and that this man will made to look like some unbalanced individual.

[severin]

You know it was a government problem in any case. I heard the Granby Mayor on the radio and he did not give any details on whatever decision they made that upset this guy so much, except only to say "we did everything legally and it was a judge who finally ruled in our favor". But from the defensive attitude he was taking, I wasn't quite sure he even believed it himself. Do we have any libertarians in Granby who may have more insight into what really happened between this guy and his muffler shop, the concrete company and the local government? I would really be curious.

[LES LARSEN]

THIS MAN SHOULD BE RECOGNIZED AS A MODERN DAY HERO! WE SHOULD DECLARE THE DAY A NATIONAL HOLIDAY DEDICATED TO A MAN WHO STOOD UP FOR WHAT HE BELIEVED IN. IF HE WANTED TO KILL PEOPLE HE COULD HAVE EASILY. IN A DAY OF
PAYOFFS AND GREASED PALMS IT IS A WONDER
SOMETHING LIKE THIS HASN'T BECOME A COMMON OCCURANCE. YOU CAN BET THE REAL STORY WOULD REVEAL SOME TYPE OF SHADY DEALINGS TO LEAD TO
THE REAL REASON MARVIN HEEMEYER DECIDED TO
GIVE HIS LIFE TO PROTEST THE SAME!

[Ethan]

It's a hell of a way to go out, demolishing City Hall.