SOUTH JORDAN, Utah — The city of South Jordan is suing a man who was arrested last summer after allegedly stockpiling explosives in his home, saying the house is dangerous and needs to be torn down.
The home has been closed to entry since the owner was arrested after allegedly shooting at police last summer.
“Yesterday, (Tuesday) we issued a complaint to the court system after several months of working with the mortgage company and we determined that they hadn’t moved towards a mitigation of the house,” said Rachel Van Cleave, Public Information Officer for the City of South Jordan. “For the safety of our residents, we’ve been working towards that demolition this entire time.”
Ryan Lynn McManigal, who is currently incarcerated, was arrested in July 2020 and charged with attempted murder and use of a weapon of mass destruction after a standoff with police outside his South Jordan home. When police arrived, he fired a gun at officers in an armored vehicle. After he surrendered, police found 20 pounds of explosives in the house.
“The McManigal House is and will remain a literal minefield until the structure is demolished,” reads a complaint filed Tuesday.
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According to an explosives expert quoted in the South Jordan city lawsuit;
“The amount of TATP found in the McManigal House could be calculated in the scores of kilograms: an amount sufficient to entirely demolish the McManigal House and severely damage if not flatten most of his neighbor’s homes as well.”
The lawsuit also says city officials “want the house declared to be a public and private nuisance so that it can be torn down and burned. The city then wants to dig out the site of the house, refill it and clean up the area.“
“The basic plan at this point is to collapse the house, to burn everything within it and to remove the materials,” said Van Cleave, who says that the next step in this process is to hear from the defendants, on if they plan to demolish the home on their own. “Given the history of this home, the only reasonable way to act is that it is dangerous.”
The last time when they destroyed what they could they first evacuated 600 homes and 30 nearby businesses. Police said the blast in that detonation knocked the first floor of the house of its foundation.
“I feel like it shouldn’t have taken this long, I feel like they should have had this taken care of months ago,” said Shane Davis, who lives next door. Davis is thankful for the City of South Jordan for stepping in to try and take over the demolition process after more than six months since the initial incident. “It’s been difficult, very difficult.”
Click here to read more details from The Salt Lake Tribune.
