Two men were arrested after the authorities found an incendiary device beneath a vehicle belonging to a Salt Lake City television news station on Friday, according to court documents.
Bomb squads from the Salt Lake City Police Department and Unified Fire Authority responded to reports of a suspicious device.
They determined that it was a real “incendiary device” and had been placed under a Fox 13 News vehicle parked next to an occupied building, the location of which was not specified.
The device “had been lit but failed to function as designed,” according to court documents.
“Due to the nature of the device and its placement, this incident constituted a significant threat to public safety,” according to an affidavit of probable cause.
It was unclear if the vehicle had been occupied while the incendiary device was underneath it.
The two suspects, Adeeb Nasir, 58, and Adil Justice Ahmed Nasir, 31, face charges, including threat of terrorism, possessing weapons of mass destruction, attempted aggravated arson and possessing explosive devices.
They were booked into the Salt Lake County Jail on Sunday and will be held without bail because of “substantial evidence to support the charge,” according to court documents.
A motive for the placement of the device was unknown. The F.B.I. declined to comment, saying documents related to the case were sealed, and the Unified Fire Authority did not respond to a request for comment.
The F.B.I. searched the home of the two men on Saturday and found them there, court documents said.
Investigators found two “hoax weapons of mass destruction” inside the residence, along with two firearms and illegal narcotics. Before the two devices were determined to be hoaxes, however, the two men said that they were real devices, the documents said.
That prompted an evacuation of residents who lived near the home of the two suspects, in the neighborhood of Magna, in Salt Lake County. Both men had been previously restricted from possessing firearms because of their illegal narcotic use, according to the documents.
Leona Wood, the station manger of Fox 13 News, said in a statement on Monday that the station was working closely with law enforcement.
“We do not have information from law enforcement about motive,” the statement said.
Jenny Gross is a reporter for The Times covering breaking news and other topics.
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