Hate led to bomb threat

19-year-old is in jail on $5,000 bond

A restaurant dishwasher said he called in bomb threats in Santa Fe because “he hated people on the Plaza and wanted them to die,” according to police.

SANTA FE — A 19-yearold man who worked for a downtown restaurant was arrested over the weekend and charged with calling in the bomb threat that forced the shutdown of the Santa Fe Plaza for about an hour Friday afternoon.

Ronald Ayala-Santos was taken into custody about 3 p.m. Saturday at the venerable Plaza Café — located on the city’s historic town square — where he worked as a dishwasher, according to a Santa Fe Police Department report. When confronted by officers, the report says, Ayala-Santos asked “if this was because of what happened yesterday on the Plaza.” Police seized two smartphones he was carrying.

The report indicates that the bomb threat call came into police dispatch at 4:33 p.m. Friday. A man who identified himself as Francisco Leno said he had put three bombs in trash cans on the Plaza. “Mr. Leno stated that he hated people on the Plaza and wanted them to die,” the report says.

“Mr. Leno said the bombs were in black bags and he threw them like the bombs were trash,” the report continues. “Mr. Leno said when he pressed the number 1 on his cellphone key pad, the bombs were going to blow up.” The caller also said he was armed with a .45 caliber handgun, that he was by himself and that “time was running out.”

The police report appears to indicate that the caller also told a dispatcher that he was wearing a white shirt and black jeans, and had a green bicycle. Ten minutes after the call began, the caller “said there were five minutes left until the bombs were to be activated.”

While the dispatch center’s “pings” placed the caller’s cellphone first on a street in mid-city and then at a northeast Santa Fe location, the dispatcher told police that the caller was in the Plaza Café and “had been planning this for weeks.” At 4:43 p.m., the dispatcher said the caller was not responding any more and “there was an open phone line.”

Responding officers evacuated the Plaza while it was searched and told people in area buildings to stay put. The “shelter in place” advisory was also distributed by social media and automated “reverse 911” calls. Online Santa Fe County jail records showed that Ayala-Santos was still behind bars Monday afternoon with a $5,000 bond.