The Forsyth County County Sheriff’s Office on Thursday released three minutes and 40 seconds of surveillance video of an armed man driving his SUV up to the front steps of the courthouse where he died in a shootout with deputies.
The video begins with a Nissan Armada driven by Dennis Marx speeding up to the bottom of the steps to the doors to the courthouse: the driver's side door opens before it stops. Only in the first seconds are any deputies seen in the image even though one of them was the first to exchange shots with Marx, the sheriff said on the day of the incident, June 6. At no other times were deputies captured by the camera focused on the front walkway.
Marx also is never seen. But there was a shadow on the walkway concrete of someone moving behind the open driver’s side door. Apparent smoke bombs are tossed out of the SUV and with one an arm was seen.
And at the end of the short video, the windshield appears to be shattered and someone can be seen moving there as well but the image is not clear.
That day, Forsyth County Sheriff Duane Piper called the incident a "frontal attack on the courthouse" that Marx had planned in detail. He said Marx planned to get inside the courthouse and take hostages but the SUV would not climb the steps and he was stopped outside.
Only one deputy was wounded in the fatal shootout with Marx. Deputy Daniel Rush, a 25-year veteran, was making a routine check of the courthouse grounds when Marx drove up. Rush was shot in the leg but has recovered.
The Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office released the video after several requests from the media. But the rest of file on the investigation into the shooting has not been made public.
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