Three students were detained amid an hourslong lockdown at West High School on Monday as Salt Lake City police investigated an apparent firearm threat to the school.
The threat investigation began at about 10 a.m. Monday, when student resource officers received information about a student who reportedly had brought a gun to school, police said in a news release Monday afternoon.
“The school administration initiated a lockdown of the school within minutes of being made aware of the possible threat,” according to the news release.
Three students linked to the apparent threat were detained. Officers later determined that one of the students had brought the gun to school after stealing it from a relative, police said.
Of the three students detained, one was taken into custody and booked into the Salt Lake Valley Detention Center, police said. The other two were released to their parents.
No one was injured at the school, Salt Lake City police spokesperson Sgt. Mark Wian said. Student resource officers recovered the weapon Tuesday afternoon, police said.
Salt Lake City School District officials had lifted the lockdown by about 2 p.m. “after SLCPD officers concluded a thorough search of the West High School campus and found it to be safe,” according to the news release. Students ate lunch and attended two shortened classes before being dismissed for the day.
During the lockdown, the school district advised in a Facebook post that there were “three police officers on campus working to determine credibility” of the threat.
Meredith Eckersell, a parent of a student at West High, received a photo from her son early Monday that depicted a screenshot of another student apparently holding a revolver. The photo had been posted on Snapchat, according to her son, with the caption that read “Inda Wild West.” A filter on the image suggested that it was taken at West High School at around 8:30 a.m. The same image also circulated on social media.
In the SLCPD news release Monday afternoon, police did not note the Snapchat image.
Police continue to investigate. Anyone with information about the case may call police at 801-799-3000 and reference case No. 21-228434.
Shortly after the lockdown was lifted Monday afternoon, Utah state Rep. Jen Dailey-Provost (D-Salt Lake City) posted on Twitter about the ordeal, sharing: “As mom of two students at West High, I will say that the stress of hearing that your kids are locked down due to a poorly understood gun threat is acute. But it’s nothing compared to the hours of uncertainty and fear that every kid and teacher endured today.”
The lockdown and threat investigation at West High fell the same day that eight schools in Box Elder County were shut down ahead of classes Monday due to a separate threat investigation.
