A Salt Lake City man who allegedly placed an incendiary device under a FOX 13 news truck last month was charged Sept. 26 with attempted arson, according to recently unsealed federal court documents.
Authorities found a 2 ½-gallon gas can with a “multi-foot-long fuse” underneath the news truck at an undisclosed location in Salt Lake City at about 7 a.m. on Sept. 12, according to court documents. The can and fuse were placed under the truck at about 4:15 a.m., an agent with the FBI said in court documents, but the fuse “self-terminated” before it reached the gas can.
Surveillance video taken at about 3:14 a.m. showed that the person who placed the device was wearing a backpack, carrying a red gas can, and carrying what appeared to be a “long, dark umbrella,” according to court documents.
(United States District Court) Surveillance footage captured an individual carrying a gas can shortly before the can and a fuse were placed under a FOX 13 news van on Sept. 12, 2025. Federal prosecutors charged Salt Lake City resident Christopher Solomon Proctor, 45, in the case on Sept. 26.
Footage showed the person placed the gas can underneath the news truck and lit the fuse at about 4:10 a.m. before jogging out of view of the surveillance camera, court documents state. The fuse burned for about a minute before it flickered out, an FBI agent wrote in the documents.
Investigators later found three DNA profiles on the gas can, one of which matched 45-year-old Christopher Solomon Proctor, according to the charging documents. Proctor’s DNA was found in the State DNA Index System database on Sept. 15, as he had been convicted of burglary and theft in 2015.
It’s unclear if investigators identified who the other two DNA profiles belong to.
Police found through Salt Lake City’s license plate reader system that a vehicle registered to Proctor had been traveling near the area where the device was placed at about 4:30 a.m., according to charging documents. FBI surveillance also saw the vehicle at Proctor’s home on Sept. 17, and the vehicle was taken to a local auto dealership later that day, investigators said in court documents.
Amazon records from Proctor’s account showed that he had purchased tactical gloves and split-toe boots in August, according to the court filing. The boots, court documents allege, matched what the suspect was wearing in surveillance footage.
An FBI surveillance team also saw Proctor returned to the location where he allegedly placed the incendiary device on Sept. 19, a week after the device was discovered, investigators wrote in court documents. At that point he was driving a different vehicle registered to someone he lived with, and Proctor was seen “driving slowly past the FOX 13 – Salt Lake City building several times” before he returned home, investigators said.
FBI agents executed a search warrant at Proctor’s home and in his vehicle on the morning of Sept. 20, documents state.
During the search, investigators said they seized boots, tactical gloves, an empty gas can with a hole carved into the top and a “multicolored fuse” similar to the one recovered from underneath the news truck. Agents also seized other items, including what appears to be a blond curly wig and a black skull mask, according to a photo included in the court documents.
(United States District Court) Evidence recovered by investigators after a search warrant was executed at the home of Salt Lake City resident Christopher Solomon Proctor, 45. Federal prosecutors charged Proctor with attempted arson on Sept. 26 after a gas can and fuse were lit under a FOX 13 news vehicle but failed to explode.
Investigators also said they found ammunition in his vehicle, which appeared to nearly fill up one of the car door’s pocket compartments, according to a photo included in court documents.
In an interview with investigators, an acquaintance of Proctor’s said that Proctor had admitted to setting up a destructive device at “FOX News,” but that it did not blow up, court documents state.
(United States District Court) Evidence recovered by investigators after a search warrant was executed at the home of Salt Lake City resident Christopher Solomon Proctor, 45. Federal prosecutors charged Proctor with attempted arson on Sept. 26 after a gas can and fuse were lit under a FOX 13 news vehicle but failed to explode.
Proctor was initially charged with possessing ammunition as a felon, but that charge was dismissed Sept. 26 “based on the interest of justice” by federal prosecutors.
On the same day as that dismissal, Proctor was charged with attempted arson in interstate commerce — because FOX 13 does business with out-of-state companies — and possession of an unregistered destructive device.
Two other men were arrested during the investigation into the incendiary device earlier last month. FBI investigators identified the men through unspecified investigative efforts, and they were charged in state court in a separate case after investigators said they found two “hoax weapons of mass destruction” at the men’s home in Magna, along with two handguns and marijuana.
Those two men were not named in the charging documents against Proctor.