Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
- Luke James Bullard faces charges accusing him of making a bomb threat and damaging vehicles at the University of Utah.
- He damaged 63 vehicles with a crowbar, prosecutors say.
- A mental competency exam has been called for in one of his other pending cases.
SALT LAKE CITY — A man arrested in September and accused of making a bomb threat at the University of Utah and damaging more than five dozen vehicles there is now facing formal charges.
Luke James Bullard, 27, was charged Wednesday in 3rd District Court with making a terroristic threat and engaging in a pattern of unlawful activity, second-degree felonies; and 10 counts of causing property damage, a third-degree felony, two class A misdemeanors and seven class B misdemeanors.
On Sept. 9, police were called to the Huntsman Mental Health Institute, 501 S. Chipeta Way, after Bullard allegedly told hospital security "he placed bombs around campus, and the University of Utah campus went on lockdown due to the bomb threat," according to charging documents.
Bullard then took a crowbar, walked around the parking lot and "used the crowbar to damage approximately 63 vehicles," the charges state.
When officers found Bullard, they confronted him with a Taser, and he surrendered without further incident.
Bullard's arrest happened less than a month after he was charged in connection to a similar incident in Sandy. On Aug. 18, Bullard used rocks to damage two Sandy police vehicles parked at Sandy City Hall, 10000 S. Centennial Parkway, according to charging documents. He was charged in 3rd District Court with two counts of property damage, a second-degree felony, in that case.
Bullard then returned to the Sandy Police Department on Sept. 4 and threw another rock at a patrol car an officer was sitting in, according to court documents. He was charged with another count of property damage, a third-degree felony; and trespassing, a class B misdemeanor. A mental competency exam has been called for in that case, according to court records.
In 2023, Bullard was arrested and charged with firing multiple rounds inside his parent's house, threatening "to kill his family and burn their house down if they made him move out," and throwing a bearded dragon outside into the snow, where it died. He was determined to be mentally incompetent to stand trial in that case for about a year, according to court records. Earlier this year, he was convicted of an amended misdemeanor charge of firing a weapon and sentenced to more than 300 days in jail he had already served and two years of probation.
