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P. 5
U.S. NEWS A5
Friday 26 February 2016
Man who shot Colorado deputies angry over foreclosure
SADIE GURMAN during an argument over a Park County Sheriff Fred Wegener, center, pauses during a news conference on Thursday, Feb. 25,
DONNA BRYSON chess game. 2016, in Bailey, Colo. The tight-knit Colorado mountain community mourned a sheriff’s deputy who
Associated Press Wirth testified that the man was shot and killed while serving an eviction order on Wednesday.
BAILEY, Colo. (AP) — Mar- provoked him and lunged
tin Wirth spent recent years for his revolver before he (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
fuming over police brutal- shot him twice in the chest
ity and corrupt mortgage in Fort Collins, The Colora-
companies, fueled by his doan reported. Jurors told
own run-ins with the law the newspaper they were
and a long battle to save conflicted about the ac-
from foreclosure his two- quittal.
story home in the Colorado In January, he was
mountains. charged with eluding a
That fight came to a violent police officer, obstructing
end Wednesday when the a law enforcement animal
58-year-old shot three law and driving without insur-
enforcement officers trying ance and a license, court
to serve an eviction notice, records show.
killing one and wounding A man who got a protec-
the others. Officers fired tion order in 2005 against
back, killing Wirth. Wirth said he made vio-
Some close to Wirth strug- lent threats while enrolled
gled to reconcile the in court-ordered drug and
shooting with their memo- alcohol counseling. Dan
ries of him as a well-inten- Spykstra, who was running
tioned activist, while others the program at the time,
recalled a quick-tempered said he confronted Wirth
man with a propensity for after Wirth went off on an
violence. He wrote dispar- employee.
agingly of the government Wirth said he would put a
and police in seething posts bomb in Spykstra’s mailbox
on his Facebook page. and said, “I have you in
“They are a brutal impedi- my crosshairs,” according
ment to human progress to Spykstra. “I did not think
a danger to us all,” one they were jokes,” Spyks-
post said. “Because I write tra said. “He was a person
such things, cops want me who was constantly saying
dead.” Aware of the dan- the government was out
ger, eight officers from the to get him. Nothing was his
Park County Sheriff’s Office fault, it was always some-
went to the home in a hill- one else’s.”
side neighborhood north of Wirth owned his home un-
the town of Bailey to serve til March 2014, when Fan-
what authorities described nie Mae, the government-
as a “high-risk” eviction controlled mortgage com-
notice. They had been or- pany, took ownership after
dered to remove Wirth and he lost a court battle over
his property from the home, his foreclosure. He had
court documents show. defaulted on a $138,000
Wirth appeared on the mortgage he took out in
deck when they arrived, 2002, according to court
then went back inside, records. Foreclosure pro-
the sheriff’s office said. For ceedings began in 2013.
unknown reasons, officers “It seems to me that he
followed him in, and Wirth was just pushed to the end
opened fire, leading to a of his rope, and he tried
shootout. every single approach to
The gunfire killed Cpl. Nate addressing his grievances,
Carrigan, a 13-year vet- and at the end, he chose to
eran of the agency. One not let them take his house
of the wounded depu- away from him,” said Tim
ties underwent surgery Holland, who was involved
for life-threatening injuries in the Occupy Denver
and was in critical condi- movement with Wirth. “It’s
tion. The other was treated the middle of winter in the
and released after a bullet mountains. Where was he
grazed his ear. going to go?”
Wirth had several brushes The Colorado Foreclosure
with the law over the years. Resistance Coalition, an or-
He was acquitted of sec- ganization aligned with the
ond-degree murder in 1994 Occupy movement, said it
for the shooting death of helped Wirth with his fore-
his 24-year-old neighbor closure struggles.q
