Utah man charged with threatening officers by detonating bomb

Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes

This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.

SALT LAKE CITY — A San Juan County man faces five felony charges after police say he tried to avoid arrest by claiming he had a bomb and was being covered by another man with a rifle.

William Kevin Duran, 54, of La Sal, was charged Tuesday in 7th District Court with five counts of assault on a police officer, a second-degree felony.

On Sunday, five officers went to Duran’s residence to arrest him on “several outstanding no-bail warrants” and spotted him outside of his house.

As police approached him and told him he was going to jail, “William grabbed a drill and took the battery off, acting as if he was going to throw the items at officers,” according to a police booking affidavit. When officers continued to approach, Duran “claimed to have an explosive set up in his driveway and he had an ignition switch in his pocket.”

Duran then pulled what appeared to be a pill bottle out of his pocket, claiming it was the ignition device, the affidavit states. Furthermore, he allegedly claimed there was a person on the second floor of his house who had a gun pointed at the officers and who would shoot the explosives to ignite them.

Duran then threw items at the officers, including the pill bottle, and continued to resist arrest, according to police.

“William was tased and taken into custody. After William was in custody we observed in the driveway there was a gas can, oil can, and a lubricant can that William had pointed to. In one of the second-story windows appeared to be a pipe sticking out of the window in the direction of the driveway. At a distance, the pipe could resemble a barrel to a rifle,” according to the affidavit.

In July, Duran was charged in one case with two counts of possession of a weapon by a restricted person, threatening to assault a peace officer, drug possession and possession of drug paraphernalia; and in another case, he was charged with aggravated assault and assault, according to court records.

As Duran was being transported to jail for one of his previous incidents, he told the arresting officer “he was going to smash my brains against the rocks. William stated he could wrap a chain around my neck and throw me into the river. William stated he had other weapons that can reach out and he would shoot me between my eyes,” according to a police affidavit.