Owner Of Home Destroyed By Police: 'This Is A War Zone'
GREENWOOD VILLAGE, Colo. (CBS4) - The owner of a home destroyed during a police standoff in Greenwood Village gave CBS4 a look inside the home on Saturday.
Earlier this month an armed shoplifting suspect barricaded himself inside Leo Lech's house for nearly 19 hours. Police said they needed to "open up" the house to arrest him.
Greenwood Village police say their whole case started when the suspect, Robert Seacat, fired at an officer from the garage of the home. But Lech says the small bullet hole in the garage door doesn't justify all the damage to his home.
Lech was given the keys to his property on Friday. The only problem is he doesn't have a front door anymore.
"I would say welcome to my home if I lived in Iraq," Lech told CBS4's Jeff Todd. "The magnitude of the excessive force used on this home is mind boggling.
"These are granite counter tops you guys can see that are torn like a piece of paper."
The top floor has the most damage.
"This is the use of explosives … there's absolutely no question that explosives were used here," Lech said.
Nearly every room is destroyed. The only thing salvageable is likely in the family room.
"The term they use is they had to poke a few holes," Lech said. "And there's an awful lot of dust due to the complete destruction of this home."
Right now it's not a safe place to be.
"There are shells or some sort of missiles or explosives over here," he said. "Oh, and not only that, here's an unexploded one that is still in the wall."
Insurance has said the house needs to be demolished. The city has agreed to pay the $5,000 deductible.
"This is out of a war zone. That's the only description -- okay -- that this is a war zone."
But a city official said a new house needs a new foundation, and that's not covered by insurance.
"I'm not going to start the demolition of this house until I know who is going to pay to take out the concrete pad," Lech said.
Lech thinks it will be a few weeks before it can be demolished and rebuilt.
"You're looking at about at least a year -- at least -- and that's if we get some help from the city to expedite permits, to expedite inspections, things of that nature."
The Greenwood Village police say they stand by their decisions made during the nearly day long standoff.
