A Nebraska man faces charges after a rampage with a Bobcat skid loader left multiple vehicles damaged, including a police vehicle.
Samuel Peyrot, 36, faces charges of second-degree assault on an officer, second-degree assault and criminal mischief in the Sunday incident, according to KLKN-TV.
Police were called to a U-Stop gas station at about 2:30 p.m. on Sunday after a complaint was made that someone was damaging vehicles in the parking lot by driving a skid loader into them.
The loader was then reported to be damaging vehicles in the parking lot of a Home Depot.
Video posted to social media platform X showed that at one point, the loader was driven into a Lincoln police vehicle.
Just the average Home Depot experience. pic.twitter.com/qQGrnblbzG
— Jeff McRichards (@JeffMcRichards) January 14, 2024
Police said that an officer was in the vehicle at the time of the incident, according to KOLN-TV.
The officer exited the vehicle after the impact and pointed his gun at the skid loader. Police noted that the officer did not fire his gun.
At that point, the driver of the skid loader surrendered to police without further incident.
Did this officer handle the situation appropriately?
Police said one person in a truck was injured and that multiple vehicles were damaged. Two businesses also reported damages from the incident.
Police said the skid loader was owned by Peyrot’s employer, and that he had taken it to the gas station in a company-owned truck with a trailer.
No motive was given for the incident.
Dario Briseno Diaz of Lincoln said he initially thought the skid loader was there to clear snow from the Home Depot parking lot. Diaz said he was sitting in a truck waiting for family members who were in the store, according to the Journal-Star.
“I thought he was just plowing snow,” he said.
Once the loader began hitting vehicles, the family left the truck to go inside to safety.
“It was scary,” he said. “Like, ‘holy crap, this is happening.’ You don’t expect it.”
“If the cops hadn’t arrived, I thought he might have gone into the Home Depot,” he said. “It’s pretty shocking.”
