Colorado Man Plows Pickup Truck Through Police Station, Causing $1 Million in Damage
He is facing multiple charges for the incident.
A man has been charged with attempted murder, attempted assault, attempted vehicular assault, criminal mischief and reckless endangerment after police say he deliberately drove his truck into a police station, causing damages estimated to be up to $1 million.
Nathan David Chacon, 45, told police he had no choice but to ram his 2007 Chevrolet Silverado into the Grand Junction PD headquarters in Colorado because he thought he was being followed. Here's what happened.
According to the arrest affidavit, Chacon was well-known to police at the time of the incident. He had made almost 90 calls over the past few years, claiming "strange happenings that have been unfounded." In the weeks leading up to the incident, Chacon would call the station, swear at officers, then hang up in a rage.
It's not clear what, if anything, Chacon was reporting with these phone calls. He claims to have been followed by multiple vehicles on the morning he crashed his cars through the glass doors of Grand Junction PD, trying to evade them by making turns into side streets.
Footage of the incident shows Chacon driving through the parking lot of the police station and then deliberately making a sharp left turn to drive right into the glass doors. Multiple police and employees were in the station but none of them were hurt. Chacon is seen calmly stepping out of the truck and putting his hands behind his head after the crash.
According to Detective Bryce Raber, the truck hit a wall that was pushed "several feet" into offices. "Miraculously, this wall stopped Nathan's truck and did not allow it to go any further into the offices where numerous employees were working and going about their general daily duties," Raber says.
Chacon told police he knew it was a "dumb" idea, but he "did not want to be killed, so he chose to drive into the lobby… in order to be heard." "The Grand Junction Police Department believes this to be an isolated incident and there is no ongoing threat to the community," police say. "This is an active investigation and there is no further information at this time."
