Police Shoot Man Preparing ‘Unbelievable Arsenal’

Police shot and wounded a man as he loaded his truck with what authorities said was an “unbelievable arsenal” to make good on threats to former co-workers at an Army chemical weapon depot.

David Miller, 44, was in fair condition Thursday at Oregon Health Sciences University Hospital in Portland, where he was being treated for a gunshot wound to his left arm.

He remained under arrest but not formally charged pending “a very active and continuing investigation,” said Umatilla Dist. Atty. Christopher Brauer.

Miller threatened former Umatilla Chemical Depot co-workers Wednesday at a union hall in Pasco, Wash., police said.

Union officials reported the incident to authorities. FBI agents and police then went to Miller’s home in Pendleton.

“The officers found him outside his home getting together an unbelievably huge cache of ammunition, rifles and handguns,” Brauer said. “The pickup was literally littered with guns.”

Police repeatedly ordered Miller to drop a semiautomatic rifle he was carrying, but he refused. Oregon State Police Det. Mike Davis fired one round, wounding him in the arm, Brauer said.

Miller was part of a general layoff in August, according to Chris Early, spokesman for Washington Demilitarization Co., which is building an incinerator at the depot under contract for the Army.

Union officials said Miller was forced off the job by an injury at the incinerator and was angry over his insurance settlement.

The depot holds more than 3,000 tons of potentially deadly nerve and mustard gas weapons.