Police Shoot Man Who Said He Had Bomb at Gallivan TRAX Station

Police shot a man who threatened to detonate a bomb Thursday night on the Gallivan TRAX station platform in downtown Salt Lake City.

Officers responded to a call of a bomb threat at 9 p.m. and found a man on the light-rail station platform, said Salt Lake police Lt. J.R. Nelson. The man seemed upset and claimed to have a bomb in his backpack.

KUTV Channel 2 News reported that the man called the station at 9:10 p.m., saying he was wired with explosives.

Nelson said police didn’t know if there really was a bomb but closed the area bounded by 200 to 400 South and State Street to West Temple while they negotiated with the man. A SWAT team also was near the station.

Detective Mike Hamideh said the man broke off negotiations with police at 10:50 p.m. About 10:55 p.m., the man began walking toward officers. The officers gave him commands, but the man ignored them. The officers felt their lives were in danger and shot the man, Hamideh said.

Hamideh was not sure how many shots were fired by officers or how badly the man was injured.