Marvin Heemeyer

In 1974, Heemeyer moved to Colorado, because he was stationed at Lowry Air Force Base. Opposition to sell to concrete plant In 1997, the Docheff family planned to expand their business to include a concrete batch plant and were buying up the land around their current lot, hoping to lease the remaining 23 parcels to small manufacturers. He also complained to the Environmental Protection Agency; this resulted in the Docheff family having a professional noise analysis done. In June 2001, Joe Docheff made Heemeyer an offer over the phone whereby if Heemeyer dropped the lawsuit, they would provide him an easement to connect a sewer line to the new concrete plant free of charge; Heemeyer simply hung up. Around this time, the buried concrete truck barrel that served as Heemeyer's sewage hole filled up. Heemeyer responded by pumping his sewage with a gasoline pump into the irrigation ditch that ran behind his property. Heemeyer also attempted to illegally connect to a neighbor's sewer line, but was caught and the incident reported to the sanitation district. At this point, the sewer district started enforcing the legal requirement to have a sewer hookup or a septic tank and fined Heemeyer $2,500 () for it and other city code violations at his business, in July 2001, nine years after he was required to have installed either. Bulldozer repurposing and construction After the lawsuit against the town was dismissed in April 2002, Heemeyer blamed the failure on his lawyer and demanded a refund. Knowing the zoning decision was now final, he traveled to California, bought a Komatsu Limited D355A bulldozer in an auction for $16,000 () and had it shipped to Granby in July 2002. He kept it outside of his business with a "For Sale" sign on it and tried to auction it, but few paid it any mind. In October 2002, he announced the closure of the muffler repair business, putting almost all of the inventory up for sale. When the bulldozer failed to sell, he saw it as a sign from God to use the machine to enact vengeance on the town of Granby. He sold his property for $400,000 ()—around ten times the original purchase price—to a waste disposal company in October 2003 and took out a lease for half the building he had previously owned until he had "finished some work." Within a day of the purchase closing, the new owners had completed water and sewer connections. He erected a wall to separate his space from the rest of the building and changed the locks. While no one else could see him, he worked on the bulldozer, illegally constructing living quarters to avoid having to return to his home in Grand Lake, which he saw as a waste of time that could be spent on the dozer. During this period, he dumped his sewage into the same irrigation ditch he had been caught dumping into several months earlier. "It is interesting to observe that I was never caught", Heemeyer wrote. "This was a part-time project over a 1½-year time period." He was surprised that several men, who had visited the shed late the previous year, had not noticed the modified bulldozer "especially with the lift fully exposed ... somehow their vision was clouded". During this period, Heemeyer repeatedly mentioned the bulldozer to friends and associates, as well as his intention to use it for destructive purposes. The bulldozer was a modified Komatsu D355A, which he referred to as the "MK Tank" (or "Marv's Komatsu Tank") in audio recordings, fitted with makeshift composite armor plating covering the cabin, engine, and parts of the tracks. Three external explosions and more than 200 rounds of ammunition fired at the bulldozer had no effect on it. For outside views, the bulldozer was fitted with several video cameras linked to two monitors mounted on the vehicle's dashboard. The cameras were protected on the outside by shields of clear bulletproof polycarbonate. Compressed-air nozzles were fitted to blow dust away from the video cameras. Three rifles, including a .50 BMG rifle, were mounted in the vehicle. At the time of the demolition it also contained three handguns and enough food and water to last a week. ==Personal life and death==

Marvin Heemeyer was born on October 28, 1951, on a dairy farm in South Dakota. John Bauldree, a friend of Heemeyer's, said that he was a likable person. Heemeyer's brother Ken stated that he "would bend over backwards for anyone." While many people described Heemeyer as an affable person, local resident Christie Baker claimed that she was told that Heemeyer threatened her husband after he refused to pay for a disputed muffler repair. In 1994, a measure was proposed that would have legalized gambling in Grand Lake and Heemeyer was so passionate about the cause that he nearly came to blows with a local reporter who was opposed to the proposal. Rampage On June 4, 2004, starting at around 2:15 p.m., Heemeyer began by driving his armored bulldozer through Mountain Park Concrete, owned by the Docheff family. At the time of the attack, Cody Docheff was at the concrete plant, screening topsoil at the gravel pit, when he got a notification over his radio that there was an explosion at the precast concrete shop. Forced to continue forwards and unaware of a small basement on the property, Heemeyer was lured into driving into the building as a means to hopefully pass through it, drive through the other side and continue his attack. However, the tread of the machine slipped into the basement due to its immense weight, essentially deactivating the machine. The radiator had also been damaged, and the engine was leaking, before failing. As such, it was noted that even if Heemeyer had been able to free himself, the bulldozer would not have been able to operate much longer. About a minute later, at 4:30 p.m. MST, one of the SWAT team members, who had swarmed around the machine, reported hearing a single gunshot from inside the cab. It was later determined that Heemeyer had shot himself in the head with a .357-caliber handgun. ==Aftermath==

Police had first used explosives in an attempt to remove the steel plates for fear of booby traps, but after the third explosion failed, they cut through them with an oxyacetylene cutting torch. Cody Docheff stated that "if Heemeyer truly didn't want to hurt anybody, he would have plundered the center of town on the weekend, when most businesses would have been empty". Others have called his rampage domestic terrorism. ==Motivation==

A search of Heemeyer's house in Grand Lake turned up plans for the bulldozer on his personal computer. Investigators later found Heemeyer's handwritten list of targets of 107 people who he thought had wronged him. The Docheff family was at the top of the list (written as "Douche-eff"). The list also included various buildings, companies, judges, politicians, newspaper editors and anyone who sided against him in past disputes. One entrant was the local Catholic Church which he did not damage, due to their opposition to his attempts to legalize gambling, as well as theological differences, as Heemeyer was a member of the Christian Reformed Church. Prior to the rampage, Heemeyer had scrawled a list of complaints onto an old "For Sale" sign, as well as scrap paper. These ranged from the Docheffs' unwillingness to pay the large sums he requested, the sanitation district's fining of him, and that the town had approved the plant construction. The other writings suggested that God had stopped the plant from being constructed in 1992, and alluded to a belief that God had caused the deaths of multiple people who had opposed him. Heemeyer further claimed that "I was always willing to be reasonable until I had to be unreasonable", adding that "Sometimes reasonable men must do unreasonable things." In addition to these writings, Heemeyer recorded three audio tapes explaining his motivation for the attack. The tapes contained two separate recordings on each side for a total of six recordings. He mailed these to his brother in South Dakota shortly before stepping into his bulldozer. Heemeyer's brother turned the tapes over to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), who in turn sent them to the Grand County Sheriff's Department. The tapes are about 2½ hours in length. The first recording was made on April 13, 2004. The last recording was made on May 22, 13 days before the rampage. "God built me for this job", Heemeyer said in the first recording. He also said it was God's plan that he not be married or have a family so that he could be in a position to carry out such an attack. "I think God will bless me to get the machine done, to drive it, to do the stuff that I have to do", he said. "God blessed me in advance for the task that I am about to undertake. It is my duty. God has asked me to do this. It's a cross that I am going to carry and I'm carrying it in God's name." Other statements included in the tapes make mention of Heemeyer's view that he was an "American Patriot", with local journalist Patrick Brower suggesting this may be indicative of links to the broader patriot movement. ==In popular culture==

• Leviathan — a 2014 Russian film inspired by Heemeyer's story • Tread — a 2019 documentary film based on the rampage • "Killdozer" — a 2024 song by Madeline Johnston (performing as 'Midwife') ==See also==