Man brought guns, IEDs to Colorado amusement park before dying by suicide: What to know
Authorities are investigating why a heavily armed and armored Colorado man with explosives stashed in his car broke into a closed amusement park bathroom and scrawled "I am not a killer" on the wall before shooting himself dead.
The Garfield County Coroner's Office said Diego Barajas Medina, 20, died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound Oct. 28 after breaking into a women's bathroom at the Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park. Park workers found his body during a routine morning check, and police found his nearby car loaded with explosives.
Investigators say Medina had both real and fake explosives on him and other IEDs in his car. They said he was wearing body armor and tactical clothing bearing patches similar to what law enforcement wears. He was also armed with two homemade or ghost guns ‒ a semi-automatic rifle and semi-automatic handgun – and multiple loaded magazines.
The amusement park is atop a mountain in Glenwood Springs, and most people reach it via a slow-moving gondola. Medina used a narrow service road to reach the park in his car Friday night, and officials say they would have had a hard time responding rapidly had Medina attacked others. The park, which is built over a series of mountaintop caves, was closed for the season when Medina broke in. Glenwood Springs is about 150 miles west of Denver.
"We had the potential for something very heinous and gruesome to happen in this community," Garfield County Sheriff Lou Vallario said at a Monday evening press conference. "We’re fortunate that it did not occur."
Vallario said Medina wrote a message on the bathroom wall: "I am not a killer. I just wanted to get into the caves."
Medina spent at least some of his childhood in the nearby town of Carbondale, and attended local schools, authorities said. Vallario said he had no criminal record or even a speeding ticket, and that investigators are searching for a motive.
"He was just completely under the radar," Medina said Monday evening. "If he had gone through with... the worst-case scenario, it could have been devastating."
Park officials thanked police and the bomb squad for rendering the explosives safe and sweeping the park for any other hazards.
“This is a very sad and tragic incident reminds us how much our Glenwood Springs community means to us,” General Manager Nancy Heard said. “We appreciate the swift action and thorough work of the Garfield County Sheriff’s Department and Coroner’s Office, as well as the Garfield County All Hazard Response Team and other authorities assisting in the investigation, working together to ensure the park is safe to reopen.”
Investigators on Tuesday said they had no new information to release: "Now that the immediate danger is past and the public has been made aware of the incident, our investigators will continue their work in a thorough and methodical method," sheriff's spokesman Walt Stowe told USA TODAY.
Colorado has a long history of mass shootings and other gun-related violence, from the 1999 Columbine High School attack to the 2012 Aurora movie theater shooting, the 2015 attack on the Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood, the 2021 Boulder grocery store murders, the 2021 Denver and Aurora tattoo parlor attacks and the November 2022 Club Q attack in Colorado Springs.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Colorado amusement park would-be shooter scrawled 'I am not a killer'
