Raw Footage of Destruction


A man on a big farm tractor, angry about his recent arrest for
resisting arrest and marijuana possession, was rolling across their
vehicles -- five marked cruisers, one unmarked car and a transport van.

By the time they ran outside, the tractor was down the driveway and out onto the road.



With their vehicles crushed, "We had nothing to pursue him with," said Chief Deputy Philip Brooks.



Thursday afternoon's incident ended when city police in Newport, the
county seat of the northern Vermont county, caught up with Roger Pion,
34, a short distance away.

No one was injured. At least two deputies had gone inside a few moments before after washing their vehicles, officials said.



"Nobody was hurt. That's the thing everybody's got to cherish," said Sheriff Kirk Martin.



Brooks said late Thursday afternoon it was uncertain what new charges
Pion would face. He said Pion was being held by the Vermont State
Police at their barracks in nearby Derby. A dispatcher there referred
questions to the sheriff's department.

Sheriffs said they did not know if Pion had a lawyer. A phone number for him could not be located.



Martin estimated damage to the vehicles at more than $300,000. Not
only were their roofs and hoods caved in, "the radios are ruined, the
radar detectors, the cages in the cars ... We're going to have to get
the jaws of life up here to pry the trunks open and see about the rifles
and shotguns," Martin said.

Brooks said the vehicles destroyed constituted more than half the
fleet of sheriff's cruisers in the rural county on the Canadian border.
Others were out on patrol at the time of the incident.

Embed CodePlays: 60971 (Embed: 2150)

"It was a
massive tractor," Newport Express Publisher Ken Wells told the Free
Press. "It has four six-foot tandem wheels on the back. It was red. It
must be at least a 15-ton tractor."

"It's pretty much the biggest tractor you can get," Police Chief Seth DiSanto agreed.

The
suspect ditched the tractor about two miles from the crime scene and
then fled on foot before being apprehended, according to WCAX. He has
been turned over to the Vermont State Police.

Pion was previously
arrested on July 3 for marijuana possession and resisting arrest. His
court date had been set for next Tuesday.