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Amanda Butterfield Reporting The arrest of a man in connection with last month's bomb at the Salt Lake City library reads like something out of a crime novel. Local police and federal officials used every resource open to them to find Thomas James Zajac. Even the smallest detail aided in the arrest.
It was the middle of September when the bomb went off on the third floor of the library and everyone was evacuated. As of Friday, law enforcement has its man.
Thomas James Zajac was arrested late Friday night. He is the man police and FBI say planted a bomb in the Salt Lake City Library.
"It just sounded like a gunshot."
"Like a really close gunshot."
The afternoon of September 15th, about 500 patrons were evacuated after the galvanized pipe bomb went off. The bomb was left on the third floor of the library in an Arby's fast food bag, and had a timer on it.
The blast didn't hurt anyone, but it damaged the building.
Ever since, investigators have been interviewing hundreds of witnesses, going through hundreds of surveillance tapes, but it was a fingerprint on a wrapper found at the crime scene that led to Zajac, who was living in the Chicago area.
Tim Furhman, FBI SLC: "He did not resist arrest or anything like that."
KSL discovered this is not the first time Zajac has been arrested. In the spring of '05 he was arrested in a suburb of Chicago for domestic assault, and then after an outburst at a police station, with criminal damage of property. The FBI says Zajac was arrested in another state as well, but won't go into detail.
For this crime, Zajac is charged with possession of an unregistered destructive device and faces up to 10 years in federal prison and a 250-thousand dollar fine.
William Newell, Special Agent ATF: "That's part of the investigation. It's a continuing investigation."
Once Zajac is returned to Utah he will be scheduled to appear in federal court.
