A South Jordan man accused of making and stockpiling explosives in his home was convicted in Third District Court on Friday of six counts of possession of weapons of mass destruction and two counts of assault on a peace officer, according to a news release from the district attorney’s office.
Ryan McManigal was arrested in July 2020 after a standoff with police outside his South Jordan home. When police arrived, he fired a gun at officers in an armored vehicle. After he surrendered, police found 20 pounds of explosives in the house.
McManigal said those explosives could take out his neighborhood block, the release said. Bomb experts removed what they could of the explosive substance, identified as triacetone triperoxide, or TATP, but some of it stored in the basement could not be safely removed. Authorities evacuated about 600 surrounding homes and 30 businesses, then a bomb squad detonated the material.
Police originally began investigating McManigal after he made threatening calls to a local restaurant. They discovered that he had guns and explosives, which he was not legally allowed to have because of a protective order filed against him.
The city of South Jordan eventually sued McManigal, saying his house was dangerous and needed to be torn down. “The McManigal house is and will remain a literal minefield until the structure is demolished,” a complaint filed in 2021 reads.
The home had to be destroyed because not all of the explosive material could be safely removed, according to city officials.
Crews destroyed and removed the home’s roof and walls, and set a “quick burn” fire in the basement to remove any explosives that remained.
“Mr. McManigal posed a risk to hundreds of South Jordan residents when he made weapons of mass destruction in his home,” said Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill. “Our office will always aggressively prosecute those who put the lives of Salt Lake County residents at such grave risk.”
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