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SALT LAKE CITY — A Jewish community center in Salt Lake City was evacuated Tuesday morning due to a bomb threat, making it one of many to be targeted around the country, police said.
The I.J. & Jeanné Wagner Jewish Community Center, located at 2 N. Medical Drive in Salt Lake City, received a threat of a bomb at around 9:40 a.m., according to Salt Lake City Police detective Greg Wilking. Administrators evacuated the building as a precaution, sending their 220 students and 80 staff and administration members to nearby University Hospital for shelter. Bomb sniffing K-9s were brought to the scene to go through the building.
After several hours of investigation, the bomb threat was verified by police as false and the I.J. & Jeanné Wagner Jewish Community Center was reopened for business around 12:40 p.m., police said.
"We don't believe there's any credible threat," Wilking said.
The Salt Lake City location was one of several Jewish community centers that were evacuated around the U.S. due to bomb threats Tuesday morning. According to NBC 9 News, a Jewish community center in Boulder, Colorado, was also safely evacuated around 9:50 a.m. Centers in New Jersey, Connecticut and New York were also evacuated Tuesday.
According to NBC New York, it is the third time this month that Jewish Community Centers have been targeted with bomb threats. Sixteen centers were threatened in nine states on Jan. 9 and then on Jan. 18, 28 centers in 17 states were threatened, NBC New York reported.
"The FBI and the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division are investigating possible civil rights violations in connection with threats to Jewish Community Centers across the country," FBI officials said in a statement. "The FBI will collect all available facts and evidence, and will ensure this matter is investigated in a fair, thorough and impartial manner."
Contributing: Pat Reavy
