Watch horrifying moment ‘Killdozer’ goes on rampage destroying driver’s own town after falling out with his neighbours
THIS is the horrifying moment a “Killdozer” rampage destroyed a small American town and caused more than $5 million in damages to residents’ homes and businesses.
Marvin Heemeyer became an “unstoppable” force as he tore through the streets of Granby, Colorado, in his armoured, 85-ton destructive machine.
Kitted out in makeshift armour plating covering the cabin, engine, and parts of the tracks, the ‘Killdozer’ knocked down 13 buildings and destroyed people’s livelihoods.
Footage from that frightful day in June 2004 captured the horrors unfold as the modified bulldozer left a path of destruction in its wake.
Desperate police forces did their best to stop it in its tracks, but three external explosions and more than 200 rounds of ammunition ultimate had no effect on the machine.
Sat inside it was Heemeyer himself – a reasonably ordinary man who lived an ordinary life as an automobile muffler repair shop owner.
But disputes with town officials, local press, various citizens and even neighbours eventually led him to commit the heinous crime.
He had been driven to such rage that he fitted his bulldozer with three gun-ports fitted for a .50 caliber rifle, a .308 caliber semi-automatic rifle, and a .22 caliber rifle/.
All three weapons were even fitted with half an inch of steel plating.
There was also craft to his game, with Heemeyer also installing several video cameras for visibility.
Linked to two monitors mounted on the vehicle’s dashboard, they were also protected on the outside by 3-inch shields of clear bulletproof lexan glass.
Compressed-air nozzles were also included to blow dust away from the video cameras.
As video shows the Killdozer going full throttle through homes, buildings and businesses, a plume of smoke can soon be coming from the futuristic looking vehicle.
The radiator of the machine eventually burnt out, before one of the treds became stuck in a ditch – bringing it to a standstill.
With nowhere to go, police managed to surround the vehicle – only for Heemeyer to shoot himself dead.
The town of Granby in Colorado has never forgotten that frightful day on June 4, 2004, as they were cast into national spotlight following the crazed actions of one man.
Having already held grudges against Granby town officials, the local press, and various other citizens of Granby, his boiling point had been building for several years.
From losing property disputes with neighbours to being fined for not having a septic tank, Heemeyer constantly felt the town was not on his side.
Patrick Brower, the newspaper publisher in Granby back in June of 2004, said Heemeyer “vowed to get back at the people he felt somehow had wronged him”.
He told Denver7 that this made the crazed repair shop owner “basically unstoppable”.
Heemeyer’s story was made into a full-length documentary called “Tread.”
The film’s writer and director Paul Solet said in a 2020 interview that Heemeyer was an “implicit character”, with several interviews shot over a number of years included in the project.
Many slammed the documentary for glorifying Heemeyer’s crimes, including former SWAT commander Grant Whitus, who led the SWAT team that responded to Granby that day.
“To glamorise what he did and the way he did it for the reason he did it, I think is horrible,” he said in a phone interview, Denver7 report.
Solet, however, also said the film was for those “who loved Heemeyer the most and continue to support him.”
In the following years and up until the present day, many groups have sympathised with Heemeyer, while others have branded him a “hero”.
Brower, who also wrote a book about the rampage titled “Killdozer”, said: “They think of Mark as the itty bitty guy who fought back at the government that got in their way.”
How Heemeyer inspired American ‘preppers’
By Tom Malley
Marvin Heemeyer’s 2004 destruction of a small town in Colorado has helped to inspire some of America’s most right-wing doomsday ‘preppers’.
Using his makeshift armour plating to protect the tank and stockpiling resources to last him more than a week inside the enclosed vehicle, Heemeyer has influenced the way preppers have built their bunkers.
Welding himself in, he clearly never intended to exit his bunker, and that’s filtered through to some extremists in the world today.
Installing cameras on the outside of his ‘Killdozer’ to provide a sense of security from within, along with making gaps big enough to put the end of a gun out of are perfect survival insticts.
Protected by armour and bulletproof glass, surrounded by weapons and stocked with supplies that wouldn’t run out, Heemeyer had the ideal doomsday setup.