In the three decades since a 58-ton US Army M60 tank rampaged across the city of San Diego for nearly 23 minutes, video recorded that day has lost none of its power to shock.
Scores of cars, an entire RV, streetlights, fire hydrants — all of it crushed like so many toys beneath a stampeding toddler as Shawn Nelson drove what some at the time called the biggest gun in San Diego, which, fortunately, never fired. The one-time tank commander sliced a six-mile path of destruction across Kearny Mesa and Linda Vista before getting hung up on a divider on the 163 and losing a tread.
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WATCH HEREQuick-thinking now retired San Diego Police Officers Paul Paxton and Rick Piner gave no thought to their personal safety and scrambled atop the teetering war machine. Popping open a hatch, Piner fired once, a shot that terminated the chase, and, eventually, the suspect himself.
This weekend, for a 30-minute special report 30 years later, NBC 7 met with the officers to revisit one of the most memorable events in San Diego history, and also recreated the pursuit's path with a retired NBC 7 video photographer, Mark Leimbach, who mined his years of experience to catch up with parade of patrol cars and recorded the unforgettable events of May 17, 1995, "a wild ride police were powerless to stop," as NBC 7 (aka KNSD 7/39) reporter John Gregory put it later that night.
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SIGN UP Paxton, whose career before joining SDPD included a stint in the U.S. Marines when he trained on the M60, had no trouble recalling the rampage and its conclusion.
"I heard someone say, 'We gotta take him out.' "
-San Diego Police Officer Paul Paxton
The incident changed Piner's life, the now-retired patrolman said recently.
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"I knew if that tank lurched over the center divide at that time, he would be heading into oncoming traffic, and that's when I made the decision to fire," Piner said.
And in Kearny Mesa, Leimbach walked the intersection where he caught up with the armored vehicle, the memory making the hair on his arms stand on end.
"Right here, it's where it happened," Leimbach said. "Came through this intersection, parade of PD cars ... loud, diesel-engine sounds, black smoke, exhaust and the shifting of gears — can't forget that."
Thirty years later, NBC 7 looks into the past to re-examine the indelible events of that spring night.
NBC 7's "Look Back, San Diego: The 1995 Tank Rampage" airs Sunday at noon on TV as well as all of our streaming platforms.
