A man who threatened a “farewell tour” apparently to avenge his firing and a bad business deal was arrested in Utah after authorities say he left seven crude bombs at homes and a business in Colorado, Kansas and Tennessee.
Robert L. Burke, 54, was captured Wednesday night after scheduling a noon meeting with a Grand Junction newspaper reporter at a Wal-Mart in Orem, Utah, said Linda Bowman, Grand Junction police spokeswoman.
A man posing as a friend of Burke’s said in a phone conversation that he would turn over writings explaining Burke’s motivation, said Gary Harmon, a reporter for The Daily Sentinel. Harmon said he suspected the caller was Burke and called police.
“He was very cagey,” Harmon said.
On March 24, five homemade bombs were found in plastic garbage containers outside homes in Grand Junction. Three of the bombs exploded, damaging the fronts of two homes. No one was injured.
Undercover officers arrested Burke, a former Walker Field air-traffic controller, as he walked toward a van about 9:30 p.m. in the Wal-Mart parking lot, Bowman said.
Burke appeared before a U.S. magistrate judge in Salt Lake City on Thursday afternoon. The U.S. attorney’s office in Denver has filed a single count of possession of an unregistered explosive device against him, said Dave Gaouette, spokesman for the Denver office. He said the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is investigating the case for other possible charges.
Prosecutors will seek to extradite him to Colorado, Gaouette said.
The arrest was a relief to families Burke allegedly targeted.
“There were a lot of tense nights when he was on the loose,” said Steven Sherwood, Grand Junction manager for the Federal Aviation Administration, which contracted with Burke’s former employer, Serco Group. Serco is a Tennessee- based company that provides air-traffic controllers at 56 U.S. airports for the FAA.
An arrest-warrant affidavit gives details about Burke’s apparent plans to get revenge against Serco co-workers and a Derby, Kan., couple who sold him a used ambulance.
Serco air traffic manager Gary Mueller and several other Serco employees told investigators Burke repeatedly threatened them with violence over a one- year period, the affidavit says. At one point, Burke, who made suicidal statements to fellow employees, told Mueller he had two guns, including a .357-caliber handgun that would increase his killing power, the affidavit says.
When Mueller asked Burke why he needed the high-powered pistol, Burke said that Mueller would find out, the affidavit says. “Burke told Mueller that if he did not start doing things Burke’s way that something big was going to happen,” the affidavit says. “Burke also commented that Mueller would be sorry and Burke had nothing to lose.”
Burke was fired in January 2004. Last July, Burke bought a used ambulance from Aldon and Cynthia Wentworth of Derby. But Burke refused to take possession of it, the affidavit says.
The Wentworths then sold it to someone else, and Burke sent them a threatening letter. “I have my own timetable … and time is ticking by,” the affidavit quotes the letter as saying. “And then … my farewell tour will begin.”
On Feb. 1, an explosive device was found on the roof of a Serco building in Murfreesboro, Tenn. Inside a backpack, police found a jar of flammable liquid. A firing mechanism consisting of a spring-operated clock, wires, two 9-volt batteries and an automobile light bulb were attached to the jar’s lid.
On Feb. 28, a similar bomb was found outside the home of neighbors of the Wentworths in Derby. Then on March 24, five bombs of the same design were found in Grand Junction.
Each of the Serco employees whose Grand Junction homes were targeted spoke out against Burke before he was fired, the affidavit says.
Staff writer Kirk Mitchell can be reached at 303-820-1206 or kmitchell@denverpost.com.
