Marvin Heemeyer decided to turn a bulldozer into a murderous “Killdozer” and go on a rampage in Granby, Colorado when his zoning petition was repeatedly denied. When Marvin Heemeyer of Granby, Colorado, reached a stalemate with the local zoning commission, the natural next step would have been to petition them again and wait for a response. After all, Marvin Heemeyer was considered a rational man, so it was natural for him to take a logical approach.
Instead, Marvin Heemeyer returned home, rigged his Komatsu D355A bulldozer with armored plates, a coating of concrete, and bulletproof plastic, and went on a rampage across town, knocking down 13 buildings and incurring $7 million in damage with his improvised “Killdozer.”
The horrifying true story of Marvin Heemeyer’s vengeance.
A Fight Against the Zoning Commission
Heemeyer had a small welding business in town in the 1990s, where he repaired mufflers for a profession. In 1992, he bought the site on which he built his company. He had promised to sell the site to a concrete business to develop a facility over the years. Negotiations had been complex, and he’d had difficulty reaching an agreement with the corporation on a reasonable price.
The city approved the development of a concrete plant in 2001, designating the site adjacent to Heemeyer’s for usage. Heemeyer was enraged because he’d been using the area as a shortcut between his house and his store for the last nine years.
He petitioned the city to rezone the site to prevent the plant from being built, but he was repeatedly denied. Marvin Heemeyer thought that was enough in early 2003. He had bought a bulldozer a few years before, intending to use it to establish an alternate path to his muffler shop. It would now serve a new role as his weapon of destruction: the Killdozer.
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How Marvin Heemeyer Set the Killdozer Free
Marvin Heemeyer spent roughly a year and a half customizing his Komatsu D355A bulldozer for his rampage. He installed armored plates covering most of the cabin, engine, and tracks. He’d made the armor himself out of a concrete mix poured between steel sheets.
Because the armor covered much of the cabin, he installed a video camera with three-inch bulletproof polycarbonate on the exterior for visibility. Heemeyer could see his demise on two monitors inside the improvised cockpit. Fans and an air conditioner were also available to keep him calm.
Finally, he constructed three gun ports and outfitted them with a.50 caliber rifle, a.308 semi-automatic rifle, and a.22 long rifles. Authorities believe that once he’d barricaded himself inside the cockpit, he’d be unable to escape — and they don’t think he ever wanted to. He braced himself for his attack after completing his Kill. On June 4, 2004, he locked himself inside his cockpit and took off towards Granby.
He drove the machine through the wall of his business, the town hall, a newspaper office, a former judge’s widow’s residence, a hardware store, and other houses. Authorities then discovered that every structure demolished had some relation to Heemeyer and his protracted dispute with the zoning committee.
Despite several attempts by police to destroy the vehicle, the Killdozer proved impervious to small arms fire and explosives. The shots fired at the tractor during the rampage had no negative impact.
Marvin Heemeyer and his Killdozer battered through town for two hours and seven minutes, destroying 13 structures and knocking out gas lines to city hall. The governor pondered allowing the National Guard to launch an anti-tank missile strike with Apache helicopters. He planned the assaults, and they would have been carried out if Heemeyer hadn’t been trapped in a store basement.
Marvin Heemeyer’s Killdozer Rampage Comes to an End
Marvin Heemeyer attempted to bulldoze Gambles Hardware Store when the Killdozer became trapped in the foundation. With the end obviously in sight, Heemeyer committed suicide in his cockpit with a gunshot to the head, determined to escape capture and exit the world on his terms.
Despite the approximately $7 million in property damage done to Granby, no one other than Heemeyer was killed during the spree. This is primarily due to adopting a reverse 911 system to inform locals of the approaching Killdozer so they could get out of the way in time.
The learned from us. #killdozer https://t.co/eO8h5RmISl pic.twitter.com/jMYqJjRXQ1
— Mr Robot ⚡ (@TheBitcoinDr) July 7, 2022
Authorities examined Heemeyer’s residence after the dust fell and discovered notes and audio records outlining his objectives. They also found that other men who had visited Heemeyer’s store failed to see the Killdozer, which encouraged Heemeyer to proceed with his goals.
State officials chose to disassemble Marvin Heemeyer’s Killdozer and sell it for scrap. They dispatched the components to hundreds of scrap yards to prevent Heemeyer fans from stealing a piece since it became evident that the Killdozer would become a source of interest.
Indeed, Heemeyer became a controversial folk hero in certain circles in the years following the rampage, with some claiming that he was a victim of a town administration that didn’t think twice about damaging a local business. Some have pointed out, however, that he first agreed to sell his land — and, more importantly, he might have quickly murdered innocent people during his attack if they hadn’t gotten out of the path in time.
Heemeyer eventually departed the world feeling God had commanded him to go on his spree. This was perhaps the most meaningful message he left behind: “I was always willing to be reasonable until I had to be unreasonable. Reasonable men must sometimes do the unthinkable”.
