LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — Las Vegas Metro police arrested a man, recently fired from his job, for allegedly threatening to blow up a restaurant on the Las Vegas Strip, according to an arrest report.
At around 1:30 p.m. on Saturday, May 20, officers were called to the RPM Italian Restaurant in the Caesars Forum Shops on Las Vegas Boulevard after reports of a suspicious situation.
According to the report, a former dishwasher of the restaurant, later identified as Jonathan Bonilla, made several phone calls threatening to come to the business and bomb the restaurant. A second phone call was made with threats to show up with “Glocks and AK47s,” police said.
The person who received the threatening phone calls told police that they had not seen Bonilla in three weeks.
The victim told police that he started receiving calls on his personal cell phone from a blocked number at around 12:13 p.m. According to the report, he did not answer the first two calls because they did not have a caller ID.
In the third phone call, which happened just over a minute after the first one, Bonilla identified himself and told the victim that he was going to come and “blow up the business.” The victim told police that Bonilla sounded like he was “intoxicated” and “slurring his words,” and that Bonilla said he was upset after being fired three weeks prior.
Bonilla allegedly called six times and threatened not only to blow up the restaurant, but also “bring a couple Glocks and an AK-47 to shoot up the business.” According to the report, he also told the victim that he would “end him” by shooting him and would “take care of” his family.
When the victim received the second phone call, he put it on speaker so other employees could hear. One of the other employees told police that Bonilla said he was “on the block, with a Glock” and made “weird noises similar to growls.”
According to the report, Bonilla’s last phone call came in at 1:29 p.m.
The victim told police that he did not know Bonilla that well after only working with him a handful of times. He also stated that he did not know how Bonilla got his phone number.
Bonilla had only worked for the restaurant for about a month and a half before he was let go on May 8 for failing to show up to work after being incarcerated, the report stated.
According to the report, the victim called 911 but was transferred to the non-emergency line and was on hold for 45 to 50 minutes. During that time, Bonilla called the restaurant several times asking for the victim.
Bonilla was taken into custody from his residence on May 20. A cell phone belonging to Bonilla was impounded for evidence pending a search warrant.
Bonilla was arrested for communicating a bomb threat as well as for an outstanding warrant of theft. He was taken to Clark County Detention Center. His preliminary hearing is scheduled for June 6.
