Bryan Melvin Brandenburg, Threats to Injure and Bomb, Hawaii 2024

Bryan Melvin Brandenburg, 63, of Waipahu, has been arrested and charged with threatening to injure others and bomb buildings in Utah.

According to court documents, on May 4, 2022, Brandenburg sent email communications to court personnel in Utah threatening to bomb the 3rd District Courthouse in Salt Lake City, the mayor’s office, the state capitol, every Ivy League school, and the federal courthouse in San Diego.

Multiple media persons in Utah also received email communications from Brandenburg on May 4 and May 6 threatening to bomb the Salt Lake City courthouse, “Hall Labs,” and the University of Utah (identified as “U of U”) Center for Medical Innovation.

“Sending threats to kill people or destroy property is a serious matter that we will investigate and prosecute,” said Clare E. Connors, United States Attorney for the District of Hawaii. “It does not matter if the threats are false or made to people and places outside of Hawaii. This conduct causes harm and is unlawful.”

Brandenburg is charged in the criminal complaint with one count of transmitting in interstate a communication containing a threat to injure the person of another and one count of conveying false threats through interstate commerce to kill, injure, or intimidate an individual or damage or destroy a building or other real property by means of an explosive.

If indicted and convicted on those charges, Brandenburg faces maximum terms of imprisonment of five years on the count threatening injury and ten years the six false bomb threat charge.

Brandenburg made his initial appearance today in United States District Court in Honolulu, where United States Magistrate Judge Wes Reber Porter ordered him detained pending a detention hearing on May 27.

The investigation was conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney Darren Ching is handling the prosecution.

Brandenburg is currently being held pending a detention hearing on May 27. A criminal complaint is merely an allegation, and the defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

Source: https://www.justice.gov/usao-hi/pr/waipahu-man-arrested-threats-injure-others-and-bomb-buildings-utah