Grand Junction – A man believed to have planted five bombs at the Grand Junction homes of former coworkers was arrested Wednesday night in Orem, Utah by federal and state authorities.
Robert Burke, 54, was captured after a man believed to be him contacted a Grand Junction newspaper saying he wanted to meet with a reporter in the city south of Salt Lake City, said Linda Bowman, spokeswoman for the Grand Junction Police Department.
Undercover officers saw him near a van around 10 p.m. and when Burke spotted them he turned to go back to his van. Authorities then surrounded him and arrested him without incident, Bowman said.
Burke, the former Walker Field air-traffic controller, was fired in
Burke was to appear in a federal court in Salt Lake City today on five federal explosives charges, Bowman said.
According to report in today’s The Daily Sentinel, a man claiming to be a friend of Burke’s called newspaper on Wednesday and asked that a reporter meet him in Provo, Utah, at noon today. The man told the reporter he had information on a computer that Burke wanted to publicize, the newspaper says.
But Daily Sentinel Managing Editor Dennis Herzog said they believed the man who called was Burke and they contacted authorities.
Burke was sought in connection with five bombs placed outside the homes of his former co-workers in an air-traffic control tower at Walker Field Airport in Grand Junction.
Three of the bombs exploded, damaging the fronts of two homes. Bomb squads detonated the others. No one was injured in the attacks.
The explosives were placed at the homes of workers for Serco Group, a Tennessee-based company that provides air-traffic controllers at 56 U.S. airports.
Burke also is wanted for questioning about a bomb that exploded Feb. 1 on the roof of a Serco office building in Murfreesboro, Tenn.
Burke was fired from Serco in November over a personnel matter that Serco officials and law enforcement won’t discuss.
Staff writer Kirk Mitchell can be reached at 303-820-1206 or kmitchell@denverpost.com..
