Drega was barely literate and lacked legal assistance, and his self initiated legal filings became a laughing stock both in the courts and in the newspapers to which the obsessed man sent copies, asking for assistance. A keg of dynamite had been created and only awaited the "final straw" before it was ignited

In 1995, the town selectman Vickie Bunnell, accompanied a town tax assessor to Drega's property in a dispute over an assessment. In what should have been a clear warning, Drega fired shots into the air to drive them away. He then bought an AR-15 rifle and Armour vest, and began equipping his property with early-warning electronic noise and motion detectors against what he sensed would be an inevitable government assault. It appeared Drega was running out of patience with governmental red tape and what he may have perceived, rightly or wrongly, to be a pattern of unrelenting harassment. The warnings were there but no one recognized them. Surely he was aware of the government tactics used to confront civilians at Waco and Ruby Ridge.

On August 19, 1997, at about 2:30, two NH State Troopers, Scott Phillips and Les Lord, stopped Drega in the parking lot of LaPerle's IGA supermarket in neighboring Colebrook, for a "perception of defects" in his pickup truck. Arguably, this triggered the pent up rage and anger Drega had been harboring for so long. The keg of dynamite exploded and he shot and killed both troopers. Drega then commandeered their vehicle and drove to the office of former selectman, now lawyer and part-time judge, Vickie Bunnell. Fearful of Drega, Bunnell reportedly carried a handgun in her purse. She warned the staff in the building to get out before she herself left by the back door. Drega walked to the rear of the building and shot her in the back where she died. Dennis Joos, editor of the local Colebrook News and Sentinel, worked in the office next door. Unarmed, he ran out and tackled Drega. Drega walked about 15 feet with Joos still clutching him around the legs, then calmly shot him in the back, killing him as well.

Drega then drove across the state line to Vermont where he fired at NH Fish and Game Warden Wayne Saunders, sending his car off the road. Saunders' injuries were not life-threatening. Police from various agencies soon spotted the abandoned police cruiser Drega had been driving. As they approached the vehicle, they began taking fire from a nearby hilltop where Drega had positioned himself, armed with the AR-15 and about 150 rounds of ammunition. He managed to wound two more troopers and a U.S. Border Patrol agent before he was killed by police gunfire.