BAILEY, Colo. — Authorities brought numbers this time in case of trouble, but they never expected a long-delayed eviction would turn into a deadly shootout with a Colorado man who peacefully refused to leave his foreclosed home two years earlier.
BAILEY, Colo. — Authorities brought numbers this time in case of trouble, but they never expected a long-delayed eviction would turn into a deadly shootout with a Colorado man who peacefully refused to leave his foreclosed home two years earlier.
Martin Wirth ranted against law enforcement corruption and beat a murder charge more than 20 years ago, but officers who followed him inside the mountain house did not expect he would turn his rifle on them. When the smoke cleared, three deputies had been shot, one fatally, and Wirth was dead.
The 58-year-old was a political activist whose life was pocked with violent outbursts and run-ins with the law that culminated in Wednesday’s bloodshed. But the eight officers who came to oust Wirth were more concerned he would run away than shoot at them, Sheriff Fred Wegener said Thursday.
The shootout shocked the community of Bailey where the slain deputy, Cpl. Nate Carrigan, was a familiar face. It also stunned some of Wirth’s friends, who recalled him as a well-intentioned activist worn down by years of fighting for his home.
“He definitely had an angry streak,” said fellow activist Chris Mandel, who shot a video of Wirth posted on the website of the Colorado Foreclosure Resistance Coalition, an organization aligned with the Occupy Denver movement. “He was very idealistic. He really hated the injustice of the world.”
In the video, Wirth said he refused to pay his mortgage because he claimed lenders were criminals who had defrauded homeowners. The government-controlled mortgage company Fannie Mae took ownership of his home in 2014.
It was not clear why Wirth was allowed to remain for two more years. Wegener said a previous attempt to evict Wirth in 2014 ended peacefully after he talked to the sheriff’s office. Deputies finally posted the eviction notice on his door on Feb. 16, the sheriff said.
They returned Wednesday, instructed to remove Wirth and his property, a Jan. 25 court order shows.
The sheriff said they were aware of Wirth’s prior confrontations with law enforcement, including his January arrest for eluding a police officer, obstructing a law enforcement animal and driving without insurance and a license. They considered his eviction “high-risk.”
He also was acquitted of second-degree murder in 1994 after fatally shooting his 24-year-old neighbor during an argument over a chess game.
Wirth testified that the man provoked him and lunged for his revolver before he shot him twice in the chest in Fort Collins, The Coloradoan newspaper reported.
He wrote disparagingly of the government and police in seething posts on his Facebook page.
“He was a person who was constantly saying the government was out to get him. Nothing was his fault, it was always someone else’s,” said Dan Spykstra, who got a protection order against Wirth in 2005 after he made violent threats at a court-ordered drug and alcohol counseling program.
Spykstra, who was running the program at the time, said he confronted Wirth after Wirth went off on an employee. Wirth threatened to put a bomb in Spykstra’s mailbox and said, “I have you in my crosshairs,” according to Spykstra.
“I did not think they were jokes,” Spykstra said.