This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2013, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Salt Lake City police say a 27-year-old man from Somalia apparently just doesn't like them.
There's no crime in that. There is, however, in purportedly making more than 100 calls — over just two days — to the 911 emergency number to threaten officers' lives.
Salt Lake City police Det. Veronica Montoya said the threats were made to police officers in general, not specific individuals. Still, authorities concerned about the volume and nature of the calls decided enough was enough.
"We were able to get a warrant based on the number he was calling from and officers went to his home and arrested him," Montoya said Friday.
The man, identified as Mohamud M. Ismail, was tracked down via telephone records to a residence near 700 South and 300 East and, after initially refusing to answer the door, was taken into custody just before 5 a.m. Friday.
According to a probable cause statement, Ismail made a total of 106 calls to 911 between Wednesday and Thursday night. Police say he called himself the "second Osama bin Laden," and claimed to be manufacturing explosives.
Court records indicate Ismail has previously made verbal threats via 911, and at one point was ordered by the court to undergo a psychiatric evaluation. In May 2012, he was sentenced to a year's probation after a "no contest" plea to a class A misdemeanor count of attempted threat of terrorism.
That charge stemmed from a February 2011 threat to a 911 dispatcher to "bomb and kill all Americans," 3rd District Court documents state.
This time, Ismail was booked into Salt Lake County Jail on suspicion of second-degree felony threats to life and property; third-degree felony obstruction of justice; and a class B misdemeanor count of emergency telephone abuse.
Twitter: @remims