SALT LAKE CITY, Utah, Feb. 17, 2024 (Gephardt Daily) — A man who threatened Salt Lake City police with a knife at a traffic stop and said he had bombs in his truck has been charged with 11 felonies.
Officials determined the man did indeed have bombs in his truck, according to the charges.
The Salt Lake County District Attorney’s Office announced the charges Friday against Arthur Lloyd Palmer, 51, of West Valley City, as two second-degree felony counts of assault on a peace officer and two second-degree felony recklessness with an incendiary device.
The complaint filed Thursday in 3rd District Court also includes seven lesser third-degree felony counts of recklessness with an incendiary device.
Charging documents say the two second-degree felony counts involved fully assembled “Molotov cocktails in mason jars,” and the seven third-degree felonies related to parts to assemble more.
Palmer was stopped by police just before 5 p.m. Feb. 10 in the 800 block of State Street for an expired vehicle registration.
“When the officer asked Palmer to exit his truck, Palmer pulled out a knife in an immediate show of force against the officer,” according to a probable cause affidavit, which stated Palmer asked officers to shoot him, that he “intended suicide by cop.” He had to be forcibly removed from the truck.
Palmer claimed to have explosives inside the pickup, police said, and officers observed several jars with liquids and other objects that concerned them enough that they pulled back from the pickup, secured the area and initiated a response from the Hazardous Devices Unit.
“Because of Palmer’s statements about the materials and objects inside his pickup, his criminal record, and him pulling a knife on officers, the on-scene incident commander closed State Street in both directions from 800-900 South.” The closure lasted four hours, and two businesses were evacuated.
The bomb squad, with assistance from the Salt Lake City Fire Department, Gold Cross ambulance and Unified Fire Authority, safely removed all related items of evidence.
“The items will be safely stored for evidentiary needs and disposal,” police said. “Once cleared, officers impounded the truck.”
“(Palmer) stated that he plans to use these devices against the enemy” in an apparently imminent World War III, according to his probable cause affidavit, and had plans to build new and better explosives. He was ordered held without bail.
Officers found Palmer was a “non-compliant” sex offender out of Arizona, and his jail booking initially included suspicion of 14 counts of failure to register as a sex offender, a third-degree felony, but which were not included in Thursday’s complaint.
