Tank's Hijacker Troubled -- Family, Drug Woes Haunted Man Slain During Rampage

SAN DIEGO - Shawn Timothy Nelson, the former Army tank crewman slain by police after going on a rampage in a stolen M-60 tank, had talked about suicide and was tormented by family, financial and drug problems, police and friends said yesterday.

But beyond cryptic comments, such as a statement that the Oklahoma City bombing "was good stuff," detectives have not yet found a motive for Nelson's televised ride, which left streets looking like battlegrounds Wednesday evening.

"He never made a specific threat," said police Capt. Tom Hall. He described Nelson as a divorced, self-employed plumber who had just broken up with his girlfriend, "had not been working lately and had been acting rather strangely."

Nelson's brother, Scott, told reporters yesterday: "The man who died yesterday was only a shell of the person we loved. The real Shawn died two years ago at the hands of drugs and alcohol. We are very sorry for all the damage done and very thankful that no one was hurt."

During recent years, Nelson's parents died of cancer, he lost his job, he broke his neck in an accident and he was about to be evicted from his house, his brother said. Scott Nelson did not criticize the shooting of his 35-year-old brother by an officer atop the tank, a frenzied scene captured by television and news cameras.

The ease with which Shawn Nelson stole the tank from a California National Guard armory prompted the city's mayor to fire off an angry letter yesterday, asking California Gov. Pete Wilson to order an investigation into security at the facility.

A National Guard spokesman acknowledged yesterday that vehicles entering the grounds are not checked and credentials are not required, despite a security alert imposed after last month's bomb attack on the federal building in Oklahoma City.

"We will heighten our security effort," said Col. Robert Logan.

At about 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, the 35-year-old Nelson, who military officials said once served in an Army tank batallion in Germany where he had disciplinary problems, drove his Chevrolet van into the armory north of downtown. He was apparently not challenged.

He broke into three padlocked tanks, succeeded in starting up the third and rumbled over a chain-link fence.

Then he wreaked about 22 minutes and six miles of havoc. He rammed into at least 40 vehicles, injured a mother and child by smashing into their van and attempted to hit pursuing police cars. He rammed bridges, utility poles, fire hydrants, signal lights, a bus bench and finally the concrete freeway divider where the tank became stuck in a cloud of dust.