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Dallas, TX – An irate man repeatedly rammed his truck into the side of a downtown news station building on Wednesday morning.
He then threw countless fliers and papers around his vehicle and ranted about someone trying to kill him.
A bomb squad was also dispatched to check on the contents of a duffle bag he brought to the scene, KDFW reported.
The incident began just after 6 a.m., when 34-year-old Michael Chadwick Fry intentionally crashed his silver Dodge Ram pickup into the tall glass windows of a KDFW building at least twice, The Washington Post reported.
“You could see the man’s pickup truck, the front of it clearly smashed,” KDFW reporter Brandon Todd said. “When we went into the office we saw him and he was in the bed of his truck and he was throwing boxes into the street and then just grabbing handfuls of paper and throwing handfuls of paper into the street as well.”
The frantic man was screaming, “High treason! High treason!” Todd recounted.
When Fry realized the employees inside could see him, he ran up to the window with fliers in his hands and slammed them against the glass.
“He was trying to explain something that involved the Denton County Sheriff’s Department,” Todd said. “He is claiming that someone tried to kill him and ended up hitting a relative of his and so he was wanting justice, I think….He was saying, ‘And they’re coming for me. They’re coming after me trying to kill me.’”
Police arrived at the scene and took Fry into custody without further incident. He was transported to a local hospital for a mental evaluation, and was then transported to jail on a felony criminal mischief charge.
During his trip to the Dallas County Jail, Fry told the officer he was “mentally challenged,” and that he was trying to draw attention to an officer-involved shooting that occurred during a traffic stop on Oct. 15, 2012, WFAA reported.
“They committed high treason against me,” Fry said. “They were trying to kill me and they missed and they killed Roberto Carlos Hernandez.”
According to KXAS, Fry was riding in a white Honda Accord being driven by Hernandez during the 2012 incident.
A Denton County sheriff’s deputy pulled Hernandez over for speeding, but he and Fry refused commands to exit the vehicle.
Hernandez then threw the vehicle into reverse and slammed into the deputy’s patrol vehicle, at which point the deputy opened fire.
Hernandez was struck several times, and later died at a local hospital.
Fry was arrested for violating his probation in connection with a previous DWI conviction during that incident.
He had been booked into jail in Denton County on 26 occasions since 2003 on charges of arson, making threats, and various warrants, the Denton Record-Chronicle reported.
Fry also has prior convictions for disorderly conduct, assault, burglary, and public intoxication, according to KDFW.
On Wednesday, Fry argued that he crashed his truck into the occupied news building as a desperate attempt to “demand questions to be heard” with regards to the officer-involved shooting, WFAA reported.
“Ever since, I’ve been running for my life,” he said.
“I don’t know what to do,” Fry continued. “I’m not smart enough, I’m not powerful enough, I don’t have enough money. I just wanted to summon the cavalry and get the power of the people in the media to do their job.”
Many of the papers Fry had strewn about the scene were copies of a WFAA article about Hernandez’s death, but were covered with words and phrases such as “witchery,” threats to commit capital murders, pirating, profiteering, and “mob of females.”
“Please don’t let anything happen to me. I have full coverage,” Fry said as he was being taken to the jail, according to WFAA. “Don’t let them punish me for trying to stay alive.”
At the scene of the crash, police used an explosive-sniffing K9 and a robot to ensure the bag left behind by Fry did not contain any explosives, KDFW reported.
Most of the employees were evacuated from the building for about three hours, although a small number remained in a secure section of the station to keep the channel airing.
No one was injured during the incident, and the staff in the building did not appear to have been targeted, police said, according to The Washington Post.