St. George man charged with threat of terrorism

ST. GEORGE – A man was arrested in the early morning hours Friday in St. George for threat of terrorism along with several other felony and misdemeanor charges.

St. George Police received a call shortly after midnight on a disturbance in the area of 1100 East Riverside Drive, police Sgt. Sam Despain said. When officers arrived they found a man who they believed was intoxicated attempting to drive away in his car, he said.

The man was shouting, creating a disturbance; he resisted arrest; threatened bodily harm to the officers; and the man made threats to “blow somebody up;”  and that was the reason for the terrorism charge, Despain said. He declined to provide details concerning the type of  threats made or toward whom they were directed.

According to the Utah Criminal Code a charge of second-degree felony threat of terrorism includes making a threat to use a weapon of mass destruction or a hoax weapon of mass destruction, or the intent to intimidate or coerce a civilian population or to influence or affect the conduct of a government or a unit of government.

Michael David Walker, 31, St. George is facing charges of second-degree felony threat of terrorism, third-degree felony assault by a prisoner along with misdemeanor counts of obstruction of justice, driving under the influence, interference with arresting officer and criminal mischief.

Walker was booked into Washington County’s Purgatory Correctional Facility and bail was set at $53,126.

Persons charged are presumed innocent until found guilty in a court of law or as otherwise decided by a trier-of-fact.

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4 Comments

  • Greg January 5, 2014 at 2:31 am

    Hahaha innocent till proven guilty…. BOLOGNA that is soooo false it would be nice if it was that way. I am in no way condoning criminal activity but I do believe that when arrested and put in print or news footage that you have already been deemed guilty. I have one example Richard Jewel the security guard that saw and reported the backpack before the explosion at the Atlanta Olympics he was Fried by the press ruined his life and found not guilty……. I wish the justice system would be how it should and Media stop prosecuting people in the public forum…… I am just so tired of having people whom are not guilty getting burned for it because even when proven innocent people believe the Media Stories and always there is a cloak of suspicion.

  • Cynthia January 6, 2014 at 9:49 am

    Greg…What makes you think he isn’t Guilty. For this particular person, he is guilty of this charge and A LOT more.

  • ladybugavenger January 6, 2014 at 9:43 pm

    really? Terrorism?

  • Brian January 7, 2014 at 9:00 am

    This is a despicable use of terrorism laws and the police department should be ashamed of themselves. This makes a mockery of actual terrorism and the families of its victims, and undermines the rights of every citizen. Trumped up charges don’t serve the people, justice does.

    This man was guilty of plenty of things, and should be charged with all of them, but terrorism wasn’t among them. Shame on the police, and shame on any judge that goes along with it.

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