Charges approved against man who allegedly threatened to set off bomb on Kelowna bridge

The man who allegedly threatened to set off a bomb on Kelowna's William R. Bennett Bridge in January has been hit with a slew of charges.

Roy Winter, 61, was taken into police custody on Tuesday after being released from hospital.

According to the Kelowna RCMP, Winter has been charged with arson, making or possessing explosives, use of explosives to cause serious bodily harm, possession of incendiary material, mischief endangering life, mischief, nuisance endangering life, assaulting a peace officer with a weapon, resisting/obstructing a peace officer, uttering threats, and possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose.

Winter is set to remain in custody until his next court appearance on April 3.

"This is a well coordinated and sizeable investigation, spearheaded by the Kelowna RCMP's General Investigative Support Team," Cpl. Michael Gauthier said. "It is imperative that we protect the ongoing judicial process, with that no further details will be released at this time."

The incident took place in the early morning of January 27. Shortly after police shut down the bridge, Winter was taken into police custody and shuttled to Kelowna General Hospital for a mental evaluation. A bomb squad was called up from Vancouver to ensure the alleged explosives located in his vehicle did not pose a threat before it could be removed.

"The doors of this vehicle have been sealed shut so don't even think that you will be able to open them up," Winter wrote in a long post on Facebook that morning. "Inside this vehicle is 60 pounds of highly volatile material that requires nothing more than a stupid human to make a simple mistake and regret their decision."

He reminded emergency response personnel that their vehicles "maybe bulletproof but I highly doubt they are explosion proof," giving authorities two choices."Choice A is that today a safe distance from my vehicle is approximately 50 feet," he said. "Choice B is that I will introduce you to GOD at the same time I introduce myself."