1998 Alma rampage
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- Alma, Colorado
- Fire station
- Post office
- Town hall
- Water treatment
| Date | February 26–27, 1998 |
|---|---|
| Time | 5:30 p.m. – 1 a.m. (MST) |
| Location | Alma, Colorado, US |
| Target |
|
| Perpetrator | Thomas Leask |
| Deaths | Willie Morrison |
| Property damage | US$100,000 (eq. $193,000 in 2024) |
| Convictions | Pled guilty × 13 charges |
| Sentence | Life + 27 years |
The 1998 Alma rampage was a murder and vehicle-ramming attack in the small Colorado town on February 26 and 27.
Alma, Colorado is a town, 65 miles (105 km) southwest of Denver, at an altitude of 10,578 feet (3,224 m).[1] In 1995, the Federal Bureau of Investigation designated Alma the safest town in the United States, with a crime rate of zero percent. Willie Morrison (born 1957/1958)[2] was the mayor from April 1994 – March 1995,[3] and still worked for the town until the third week of February 1998, when he and several town council members resigned in protest of a newly hired marshal. The contemporary population of Alma was 150 people.[1]
Thomas Leask (born 1947/1948) drove a snowplow part-time[1] and was a native of Alma. By early 1998, he had begun living in a backyard shack and stockpiling wood in his house.[4] He had reportedly been fighting with municipal authorities since being forced onto the town's water supply network during Morrison's tenure as mayor.[3]
Attack
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At around 5:30 p.m. on February 26, 1998, Leask shot and killed Willie Morrison in the Alma town hall, leaving behind six Molotov cocktails. He then stole a town-owned[2] front-end loader, and drove it into the local water treatment plant, disabling the town's water supply and loosing thousands of gallons to become sheets of ice on the Alma streets. Afterwards, Leask took the military-surplus heavy equipment and rammed Alma's town hall, fire department, and post office, leaving holes that measured 10 by 15 feet (3.0 by 4.6 m) and disrupting telephone service.[5]
At around 1 a.m.,[2] having already set his house on fire, Leask was arrested in a nearby grove, armed with a .45-caliber pistol[1] and a 30.06 rifle.[6]