Edgartown man arraigned on SSA terminal bomb threat

David Capato allegedly said that he would “vaporize” police.

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David Capato, standing center, was arraigned last week. —Daniel Greenman

Updated Jan. 21

The Martha’s Vineyard Tactical Response Team descended on the Vineyard Haven Steamship Authority terminal the night of Jan. 15, after an Edgartown man allegedly threatened to blow up police. 

Police in Tisbury say there was a standoff with 56-year-old David Capato at the terminal that lasted two hours, where he threatened to “vaporize” police with a bomb that was in his vehicle outside. 

Capato was arraigned Thursday morning, Jan. 16, in Edgartown District Court on multiple charges, including disorderly conduct, threats to commit a crime, terrorist threats, witness intimidation, improper storage of a firearm, possessing a firearm while committing a felony, assault with a dangerous weapon, and bomb/hijack threat with serious public alarm. 

Capato entered the courtroom in shackles, and wearing a dark quarter-zip sweater and jeans. Judge Joseph Hurley ordered Capato to be held without bail.

According to a Tisbury Police report, officers responded to a call from Capato on Wednesday, around 9 pm, saying he found an unloaded revolver at the Steamship Authority. 

The report states Capato was at the terminal, wearing a hockey-style jersey with “what appeared to be an audio-video recording device with a green blinking light clipped to his collar.” Tisbury Police confirmed Capato was wearing a body camera.

Police described Capato as “very serious, aggressive, and possibly manic” in the report. After showing officers the revolver, Capato “quickly stuffed the firearm” into a blue mailbox near the terminal.

Police say Capato became unco-operative when they tried to get more information from him. The report states Capato warned the Tisbury officers not to come any closer, threatening to vaporize them with explosives loaded in his car that he said he had a trigger for. The suspect also told police he had another firearm in his car, a Subaru Outback parked at the drop-off area in front of the terminal. 

The report says Capato claimed to be a former New York police officer when he made the bomb threat. 

“I was E.O.D. [explosive ordinance disposal], I know what the f___ I’m doing,” Capato was quoted as saying in the report. 

Tisbury Police cleared the area Wednesday evening before officers from other Island departments and the Martha’s Vineyard Tactical Response Team were called in to help. 

The report states it took more than two hours of negotiations to convince Capato to surrender, and he was taken to Dukes County Jail after being interviewed by officers at the Tisbury Police Station. 

The Massachusetts State Police Bomb Squad, which arrived via the State Police Air Wing and landed at Veterans Memorial Park in Tisbury, inspected the vehicle. 

The police report states while no explosives or detonators were found in the vehicle or terminal, State Police found a disassembled “AR-15-style rifle” and “several media devices, such as laptops, cell phones, and the aforementioned recording device Capato wore on his collar” in the vehicle. Police also found a “mostly full” five-gallon red jerry can full of gasoline in the rear of the vehicle. 

Police recovered the gun in the car, later confirmed as an M4 assault rifle, and the revolver from the postal box. 

Tisbury Police Lt. Bill Brigham told The Times nobody was injured during the incident. He thanked the departments who supported Tisbury Police, and commended the cooperative effort from Island first responders Wednesday night. 

“Although we live in a relatively safe place, we [the police] on the Island cannot live in or operate in a state of complacency,” Brigham said in a statement. “All Island police agencies train all of our officers to deal with and handle a variety of emergency situations. We are an Island community, and isolated from certain immediate emergency resources. When an emergency occurs here, we are all we have at that moment. We train to be able to respond appropriately, and we also all work well together as one team.”

Brigham also said Island first responders had undergone training last year that focused on scenarios that included a vehicle containing a bomb at the SSA terminal, similar to what unfolded on Wednesday. 

Tisbury Police stated in a Thursday morning press release that an investigation will take place with cooperation from the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, the Joint Terrorism Task Forces, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. 

This isn’t the first time the Steamship Authority has been the center of a bomb threat. In 2018, an individual made threats against the Nantucket terminal and the Mashpee reservation office, and demanded $20,000 per property.