Salt Lake City police on Sunday were investigating a report of a man pointing a gun at a woman outside the I.J. and Jeanne Wagner Jewish Community Center near the University of Utah.
The U. — “out of an abundance of caution” — put out an alert at 12:23 p.m. Sunday saying a man driving a white Mercedes wagon pulled into the front parking area at the center at 2 N. Medical Drive and pointed what was believed to be a handgun at a woman getting out of a car.
A 2:30 p.m. update from the U. said the car and the man were located later in Murray and there was no longer any threat to the campus.
Carl Arky, a spokesman for Utah Transit Authority, said the man abandoned the car on the TRAX lines at 4800 South, where he was seen running away from the vehicle and hiding in the area. There a Murray police officer apprehended the suspect, who later was transported to the Veterans Affairs hospital by a UTA officer, according to Arky.
Arky said UTA learned later about the man’s connection to the gun-brandishing incident. He did not know why the suspect was taken to the hospital.
As of late Sunday afternoon, Salt Lake City police had not been able to interview the man and did not know what type of treatment he was receiving.
Sunday’s alert is not the first notification the U. has sent this fall about gun-related incidents near campus. On Oct. 30, U. student ChenWei Guo was shot and killed at the mouth of Red Butte Canyon in a carjacking. Austin Jeffrey Boutain has been charged with aggravated murder in the slaying and if convicted, could get a death sentence.
