Homegrow inspection ends in SWAT team killing grower

Published: Aug 24, 2017, 7:42 am • Updated: Aug 24, 2017, 7:42 am

By The Associated Press

DURHAM, Calif. — Northern California authorities have shot and killed an illegal marijuana grower they say confronted sheriff’s deputies with a gun.

The Butte County Sheriff’s Office says 56-year-old Mark Jensen died Tuesday night in the community of Durham.

Authorities say code enforcement officers approached Jensen at his home on Monday and told him he was violating the county’s marijuana cultivation law. The enraged grower began making threatening calls to police and code-enforcement officers, who got a warrant to arrest him.

Hearing that he had guns, a SWAT team and crisis negotiators went to his home, where at some point Jensen threatened to shoot a motorist then holed up inside.

When he finally came outside, authorities say he had a loaded handgun that he pointed at deputies.

He was killed with a single shot.

Topics: California, guns, illegal grows, police, swat