DENVER – A heavily armed man killed himself instead of carrying out an apparent plan to shoot up a mountaintop amusement park in Colorado, his body was found in a bathroom next to the words, “I’m not a killer,” scrawled on the wall, authorities said yesterday.
Diego Barajas Medina, 20, was found dead in the women’s bathroom at Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park by maintenance crews on Saturday morning, before the park opened to the public. He died of a gunshot wound to the head, Garfield County Coroner Robert Glassmire said.
Medina apparently entered the park while it was closed, armed with an AR-style rifle, a semi-automatic handgun and explosives and wearing body armor and tactical clothing, similar to what a member of a police SWAT team might wear, authorities said.
A message that said, “I’m not a murderer, I just want to go in a cave,” was written on the wall of the bathroom where Medina’s body was found lying on the floor, Garfield County Sheriff Lou Vallario said. Nearby were guns and explosive devices, some real and some fake, he said. The AR-style rifle was on a nearby counter along with a duty belt that held several magazines of ammunition.
Vallario could not say for sure that Medina wrote the message.
A man killed himself instead of carrying out a plan to shoot up the Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park in Colorado. EPA
There were no early signs, either at home or at school, to suggest he was planning an attack, Vallario said. But the sheriff noted that investigators have not conducted any in-depth interviews yet. The FBI will help review Medina’s phone records and social media posts as part of the investigation, he said.
“Given the preparation, given the amount of weapons and rules he has, it seems very likely that he intends to use them against society. He chose not to,” Vallario said.
Various improvised explosive devices were found in the vehicle used by Medina, police said. Authorities searched the entire park for other explosives but suggested no other explosives were found.
Medina’s body was released Sunday after the scene was deemed safe, according to the coroner.
The park is likely to be crowded on fall weekends during hunting season when people travel to the mountains to see the fall colors change, Vallario said. Given the remote location of the park, where visitors normally ride the gondola, it was difficult to get the injured to the hospital, he said.
Medina is from the nearby town of Carbondale, where he lives with his mother and brother, Vallario said. In a list of high school graduates published in local newspapers in 2021, Medina said he plans to work for a year after graduation before attending Colorado Mountain College, a community college with several locations in western Colorado.
A search of his room by law enforcement found nothing indicative of explosives or bomb-making, and he had no known criminal history or previous encounters with police, the sheriff said.
The weapon found in Medina was a ghost rifle, which had no serial number and was therefore untraceable. His clothing has patches and insignia that give him the look of Medina associated with law enforcement.
Some of the suspected explosives turned out to be fake — including some that looked like grenades — but others were genuine, the sheriff said. However, there was no evidence to suggest that explosives had been planted elsewhere in the park, he said.
Investigators believe Medina drove into the park on a service road.
The park, surrounded by state-owned public lands, is located on a mountain above the Colorado River in western Colorado. Its attractions include cave tours, alpine coasters and a pendulum swing perched on the edge of a cliff that sends riders across a river canyon.
No employees or visitors were at the scene when Medina entered the park, according to a statement released Monday by Glenwood Caverns, and his body was found outside a restricted area where the rides were located.
“This very sad and tragic incident reminds us how important our Glenwood Springs community is to us,” Glenwood Caverns General Manager Nancy Heard said in the statement.
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