Carl Drega

Case record: Carl Drega

Background

Carl Drega (January 19, 1935 – August 19, 1997) was from Columbia, New Hampshire. He was described as an army veteran and a local troublemaker.

Drega had long battled with government officials. In the 1970s, a dispute arose over whether he could use tarpaper to side his house. He claimed that in 1981, “80 feet of the riverbank along his property collapsed during a rainstorm,” and that he decided to dump and pack enough dirt to repair the erosion damage, saying this would restore his lot along the Connecticut River to its original size. State officials accused him of trying to change the course of the river.

In 1995, town selectman Vickie Bunnell, accompanied a town tax assessor, visited Drega’s property in a dispute over an assessment. Drega fired shots into the air to drive them away.

Drega bought an AR-15 rifle and armour vest. He began equipping his property with early-warning electronic noise and motion detectors.

Police and officials described Drega as having a long-running feud with Columbia officials over zoning and other property issues. He threatened and sued people, including Bunnell and former selectman Kenneth Parkhurst. Drega had also threatened Bunnell with a gun and had fired a gun over her head to warn her off his homestead.

Drega returned to New Hampshire after spending the winter doing carpentry work in Massachusetts, New York, and Ohio.

The offence

On August 19, 1997, Drega killed Judge Vickie Bunnell, two New Hampshire State Troopers, and Dennis Joos, and wounded multiple law-enforcement officers.

The violence began at a supermarket in Colebrook, New Hampshire. At about 2:30 p.m., two New Hampshire State Troopers stopped Drega in the parking lot of LaPerle’s IGA supermarket in neighboring Colebrook for a “perception of defects” in his pickup truck.

Scott Phillips and Les Lord were stopped in the parking lot. Drega shot and killed both troopers. Drega then commandeered their vehicle and drove to the office of former selectman and part-time judge Vickie Bunnell. Bunnell reportedly carried a handgun in her purse out of fear of Drega. She warned staffers in the building to get out and left by the back door. Drega walked to the rear of the building and shot her in the back from a range of about 30 feet. Bunnell died.

Dennis Joos, editor of the local Colebrook News and Sentinel, worked in the office next door. He tackled Drega. Drega walked about 15 feet with Joos still clutching him around the legs, then shot Joos in the back, killing him.

Drega then drove across the state line to Bloomfield, Vermont, and fired at New Hampshire Fish and Game Warden Wayne Saunders, sending his car off the road. Saunders was struck on the badge and in the arm, but his injuries were not considered life-threatening.

Police located the abandoned police cruiser Drega had been driving. As officers approached, they began taking fire from a nearby hilltop. Drega was armed with the AR-15 and about 150 rounds of ammunition. He managed to wound two more New Hampshire state troopers and a U.S. Border Patrol agent before he himself was killed by police gunfire.

In all, three officers were wounded in the ensuing firefight that lasted about 45 minutes.

Drega’s house in Columbia, New Hampshire, burned during the spree. Officers later discovered a cache of explosives and booby-traps in an “elaborate system of tunnels” surrounding the property. The cache included 600 lb of ammonium nitrate and 60 gallons of diesel fuel, described as the lethal cocktail used by McVeigh & Co. in the Oklahoma City bombing. State police found bomb-making books and a weapons manual in the smoldering ruins of his home. ATF agents decided to torch Drega’s barn, described as a booby-trapped “bomb-making factory,” to avoid further injuries to investigating law officers.

Witnesses counted up to 40 small explosions inside the structure as it burned.

Investigation

State police and investigators later found explosives and materials on Drega’s property. Authorities found at least 600 pounds of ammonium nitrate “in a fairly elaborate system of tunnels” built beneath and adjacent to Drega’s home. Authorities were considering doing a controlled burn to get rid of the explosives.

State police also found bomb-making books and a weapons manual in the smoldering ruins of Drega’s house. Investigators could not find any connections with militia groups.

A Vermont trooper commission of public safety official described Drega as carefully planning his ambush. A police dog sensed danger during the firefight and signaled “alert.” One account stated that a handler yelled, “Ambush! Hit the dirt!”

The New Hampshire Attorney General Philip McLaughlin said it was not clear whether Drega had planned his deadly rampage or was improvising as he went along.

Arrest

No arrest was described. Drega was killed in a firefight with police.

Trial

No trial was described.

Sentencing

No sentencing was described.

Appeals

No appeals were described.

Outcome

Drega was shot to death in a firefight with police on August 19, 1997.

Deaths attributed to Drega included:

• New Hampshire State Trooper Scott Phillips
• New Hampshire State Trooper Les Lord
• Judge Vickie Bunnell
• Newspaper editor Dennis Joos

Injuries attributed to Drega included wounds to three additional law-enforcement officers during the firefight and other wounds during earlier stages of the incident, including Wayne Saunders, who was struck on the badge and in the arm.

The U.S. Border Patrol officer John Pfeifer, 33, was critically wounded, shot in the chest. New Hampshire Trooper Jeffrey Caulder, 32, was shot in the pelvis. New Hampshire trooper Robert Haase, 38, was cut on one foot by shrapnel.

Aftermath

A book titled The Ballad of Carl Drega by Vin Suprynowicz was named for him.

After the rampage, officers discovered an arsenal and explosives in Drega’s home, including reports of 86 pipe bombs, half a dozen rifles, and explosives and projectile casings for a grenade launcher in the ashes of his home.

Officials at the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant in Vernon said Drega had twice worked at their nuclear power plant, where he passed a background check and psychological screening. In 1992 he worked for a contractor as a millwright in the turbine building for a month. In 1995 he worked again for a three-month stint. Plant officials said “It was not sensitive work.” They also said the plant was shut down at the time, and that there was supervision and oversight by the radiological controls department.

Neighbors and associates described Drega as having been afraidsome and unmanageable. Neighbors said Drega was a “rampage waiting to happen” and said for the last three days they kept hearing him shooting his gun. One neighbor thought he was: “Weirder than a three-dollar bill.” Another described him as: “Somebody that you should be goddammned afraid of. He had bad blood for everybody. He was a psycho, a terror.”

Kenneth Parkhurst, described as being saved because he was at a dentist appointment, said: “He was extremely clever, but as nutty a man as you’d ever meet. He was one you were afraid to be around because you never knew what he was going to do next.”

In the newsroom, an associated quote was attributed to Vickie Bunnell warning staffers: “It’s Drega. He’s got a gun!”

Dennis Joos was described as an editor and husband and father. Memorials were described as standing outside the News and Sentinel.

Black ribbons were hung from banners in town that say COLEBROOK WELCOMES YOU. At the Balsams resort in Dixville Notch, guests were asked for patience as staff tried to deal with the tragedy. A sign on Route 3 read: “THE MOOSE FESTIVAL HAS BEEN CANCELED.”

At the newspaper, John Harrigan later described receiving calls and his feelings while organizing publication:

“I heard the whole thing unfolding on my police radio,” recalls Harrigan. “At one point I was on the car phone to the office manager, and I said, ‘I fear the worst.’ And he said, ‘It is the worst.’”
“That despicable man--I cannot even say his name--killed four of my friends, including the heart and soul of my newspaper. But I was not going to let him stop us from publishing. And with help from some other friends--the local photo shop, the boyfriend of one of my reporters, a former staffer who offered his help--we somehow put out a paper.”

Harrigan wrote in an editorial that evening:

“We'll do a better job with the loss and what this has all meant in next week's paper. Right now it's just too much, and getting the paper out is all we can manage.”

The News and Sentinel went to press half an hour late after the shootings.

Timeline

• 1970s — Drega had a dispute over using tarpaper to side his house.
• 1981 — Drega claimed that “80 feet of the riverbank along his property collapsed during a rainstorm,” and that he repaired erosion to restore his lot along the Connecticut River to its original size; state officials accused him of trying to change the course of the river.
• 1991 — Bunnell obtained a restraining order against Drega; Drega was removed in handcuffs from town hall over a zoning dispute.
• 1995 — Bunnell and a town tax assessor visited Drega’s property in a dispute over an assessment; Drega fired shots into the air to drive them away.
• August 19, 1997 (about 2:30 p.m.) — Two New Hampshire State Troopers stopped Drega in the parking lot of LaPerle’s IGA supermarket in Colebrook for a “perception of defects” in his pickup truck.
• August 19, 1997 (about 2:45 p.m.) — The carnage began outside a grocery store in Colebrook when Drega killed troopers Scott Phillips and Les Lord.
• August 19, 1997 — Drega shot and killed Judge Vickie Bunnell in the building at 1 Bridge Street after she warned staffers and ran through the adjacent newspaper office; Drega killed Dennis Joos after he tried to tackle him.
• August 19, 1997 — Drega drove across the state line to Bloomfield, Vermont and shot at Wayne Saunders, sending his car off the road.
• August 19, 1997 — Police tracked Drega’s abandoned cruiser; he wounded additional troopers and a U.S. Border Patrol agent during a firefight.
• August 19, 1997 — Drega was killed by police gunfire in a 45-minute firefight.
• After August 19, 1997 (two days later) — Police discovered 86 pipe bombs, half a dozen rifles, and explosives and projectile casings for a grenade launcher in the ashes of his home.

Other details

Bunnell reportedly had her dog at the office for fear of Drega, and the newspaper described the town setting in terms of local residents leaving doors unlocked and car thefts being rare.

Claire Knapper was named as a reporter who told The Associated Press that the violence began with a robbery attempt at LaPerle’s IGA.

Dennis Joos was named as editor of the local Colebrook News and Sentinel.

Vermont’s commissioner of public safety was named as James Walton.

One trooper arrival detail included a quote attributed to a handler: “Ambush! Hit the dirt!”

Vickie Bunnell was described as a former Columbia selectwoman.

Kenneth Parkhurst was described as the man saved because he was at a dentist appointment; his wife was visiting a relative.

One account stated that Drega returned to his own clapboard house in Columbia and burned it to the ground.

An account described authorities as giving this sequence: Trooper Scott Phillips followed Drega into the parking lot to plan to cite him for “having rust holes in the bed of his red pickup truck”; Drega shot Phillips with an assault rifle and did not initially kill him; Trooper Leslie Lord arrived and was shot and killed; Drega returned to the wounded Phillips and shot him four times with a pistol; Drega stole the trooper’s cruiser and his bulletproof vest; Drega shot Bunnell five times in the parking lot; Editor Dennis Joos tried to help; Drega shot Joos eight times; Drega drove off, set fire to his home using diesel fuel purchased that day, and drove to find another former selectman who was not home; Drega then crossed into Vermont and shot Wayne Saunders, escaping serious injury; Drega parked the stolen police cruiser on a logging road; officers approached and the dog signaled; Drega began firing and wounding a trooper in the thigh; before backup arrived he shot a Border Patrol agent and a Vermont state trooper; Drega was killed during a fire fight.

In one account, the U.S. Border Patrol agent and two New Hampshire state troopers were wounded in the chase, and the other trooper was only slightly hurt.