Hoover Dam Standoff: An Armored Car and a Protest

Suspect blocked traffic with homemade armored vehicle, demanded 'release the OIG report'
By Polly Davis Doig,  Newser Staff
Posted Jun 17, 2018 7:11 AM CDT
Man Busted After Hoover Dam Standoff
This 2014 photo shows the Colorado River below Hoover Dam on the Arizona-Nevada border looking toward the O'Callaghan-Tillman Memorial Bridge.   (AP Photo/John Marshall, File)

A 30-year-old Nevada man is in custody after a bizarre 90-minute standoff Friday at the Hoover Dam, reports the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Police say that Matthew P. Wright drove a homemade armored vehicle onto the towering Mike O’Callaghan-Pat Tillman Bridge and stopped, blocking traffic, with a sign reading "Release the OIG report" in the driver's side window. The vehicle began moving around 1pm local time, reports BuzzFeed, rolling past police cars and over tire strips before eventually coming to a halt. The driver was taken into custody without incident; police found a handgun and a rifle inside the vehicle. "I thought there was an accident or something," said one trucker who sat for 20 minutes before traffic began to move. When the armored vehicle came into view, he panicked, thinking "I wasn’t sure if he was trying to blow up the bridge or what." (Some strange stuff goes down at the Hoover Dam.)

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