PROVO, Utah, June 3, 2024 (Gephardt Daily) — A California man was arrested last week after police say he pulled out a large knife while on a bus, threatened another passenger, the driver and responding officers.
Rene Angel Duarte, 47, of Los Angeles, was a passenger on an eastbound Utah Transit Authority bus on University Parkway on Tuesday, May 28, when he pulled out a military-style knife with a serrated 9-inch blade and “threatened to slice the throat of another passenger,” according to an affidavit from UTA police.
As the driver attempted to remove Duarte from the bus at the next step, the man held the knife “in a low grip ready to stab the driver” and advanced toward him, arrest documents say.
The driver retreated into the doorway of the bus, and when Duarte turned around, the driver managed to subdue him and take the knife away, the affidavit says.
When UTA and BYU police officers responded, Duarte lunged at an officer and threatened to kill him, the affidavit says.
Officers then restrained Duarte on the ground and placed him in handcuffs, according to arrest documents.
“After being placed under arrest, I had [Duarte] stand up to check to see if he was injured,” the arresting UTA officer wrote. “When he was stood up, he lunged at a BYU Police Officer and spat in his face.”
Duarte also threatened to kill all of the responding officers, and kill and rape their children, arrest documents say. He also threatened to blow up officers, the bus and “the surrounding BYU area.”
“[Duarte] stated he was a member of the cartel and that he had explosives with him,” the affidavit says.
No explosives were found in his backpack, but officers located “a strangely wired circuit board” that by itself “did not constitute materials to make explosives,” arrest documents say.
While being transported to jail, Duarte continued to make “direct threats to kill” UTA and BYU police officers, the affidavit says.
Duarte was arrested for investigation of:
- Assault with intent to hijack a bus, a second-degree felony
- Aggravated assault, a third-degree felony
- Assault by a prisoner, a third-degree felony
- Threat of terrorism, a third-degree felony
- Three counts of assault on a peace officer, a class A misdemeanor
He is being held without bail in the Utah County Jail.
