BRIGHAM CITY, Utah — Residents of a Brigham City neighborhood have returned to their homes after a man threatened to blow up his nearby house Saturday evening.
Brigham City Police Department said the man's girlfriend called 911 at 7:45 p.m. and said he had tried to break into her home after drinking heavily. She said he approached her and told her to "get the dogs out of the house so he could blow up the house."
After making his statement, the suspect, Jeremy Ruben Perea, 44, turned the gas on to fill up the house in the area of 100 South 500 West and barricaded himself inside.
Although the gas was shut off, 14 nearby houses were evacuated, and residents were told to take shelter at a nearby Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints meetinghouse.
“We were able to get the gas, the natural gas, shut off to the house almost immediately. We had some quick-thinking officers that did that right away. And so we kind of felt comfortable that there wasn’t going to be an imminent explosion," said Brigham City Police Chief Chad Reyes.
The Brigham City SWAT team was activated, and just before 2:00 a.m., after hours of negotiations, Perea surrendered and was taken into custody.
"Unfortunately, things like this do happen. Domestic violence is… no community is immune from domestic violence, unfortunately," said Reyes. "And so luckily, this one ended well tonight.”
Arresting documents obtained by FOX 13 News say that after Perea was brought to the main Brigham City Police Department building and read his Miranda rights, he denied making the threat to his girlfriend to blow up the home, but later admitted to issuing that threat to police.
He went on to state he had hoped the released gas would either ignite or cause him to suffocate. He also admitted to multiple domestic violence incidents, including one in which he had been sentenced to probation.
Perea was arrested on suspicion of aggravated assault with a domestic violence enhancement. He is currently being held without bail.
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If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic or intimate partner violence, know that free and confidential help is available 24/7.
You can contact the Utah Domestic Violence Coalition by calling 1-800-897-LINK (5465) or visiting their website: udvc.org
You can also contact the National Domestic Violence Hotline by phone at 1-800-799-SAFE (7233) or through their online live-chat at thehotline.org
If you or someone else is in immediate danger, call 9-1-1 immediately.
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For those struggling with thoughts of suicide, the National Suicide and Crisis Lifeline can now be reached by simply dialing 988 any time for free support. Resources are also available online at utahsuicideprevention.org.
