Police report: Man threatens to kill cops, then picks handcuffs with face mask

SALT LAKE CITY (KUTV) — A Midvale man is in custody after making terroristic threats to kill police officers and attempting to escape from custody, court documents state.

According to a probable cause affidavit, Edmond, Oklahoma Police Department received a phone call from a Utah phone number registered to Joseph Dale McLeod, 34, around 7:45 p.m. Wednesday evening. The man on the phone told dispatch "your officer is dead, send backup," and then hung up the phone.

A short time later, the same phone number called Warr Achers Police Department, also in Oklahoma, and a man said "one of your officers is going to die tonight."

After Edmond, Oklahoma Police contacted Unified Police Department about the threats, UPD researched the phone registration information and a GPS location for the cell phone placed it in the area of McLeod's registered apartment near 7245 S. 700 East.

UPD officers responded to the apartment and attempted to contact McLeod through the door. Officers reported hearing a voice from inside, and commands were given for the individual to exit the apartment. A male voice was heard inside the apartment, however they refused to answer the door.

A SWAT team made entry into the apartment, where they found McLeod in bed "refusing to follow commands." Eventually, McLeod was safely taken into custody and booked into the Salt Lake County Jail.

Once at the jail, McLeod was placed in a face mask, and secured to a bench in handcuffs. According to the probable cause statement, "while secured on the bench, McLeod removed the metal nose guard from his mask and created a device picking the lock of his handcuffs."

After picking the lock, McLeod removed himself from the bench, which police wrote amounted to "escaping from official custody."

McLeod was booked on two counts of threat of terrorism, two counts of false emergency report-emergency involving injury/death, and one count of escape from custody.

While serving a search warrant on McLeod's apartment, UPD found two firearms and a vehicle, "giving him the ability and means to carry out these threats involving death," according to the police report.

Individuals named in criminal complaints are presumed innocent unless or until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.