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WEST JORDAN — A shelter in place was briefly issued for a West Jordan elementary school after police responded to a report of possible shots fired Wednesday.
The shelter in place was issued for Bridger Elementary, 5368 W. Cyclamen Way, shortly after noon, according to Granite School District officials. It was lifted at 12:30 p.m. A shelter in place was also issued for two other schools in Magna but were lifted within 10 minutes.
The protocols were enacted after police received multiple reports of possible shots fired in the area of 7000 South and 5000 West, said West Jordan Police Sgt. JC Holt.
"We got a report of a white vehicle was possibly involved — maybe a Honda or Acura. An officer located a white car that he tried to stop and that car fled from him," Holt said. "That evolved into several more officers saturating the area trying to determine what we have going on."
Police were trying to determine if shots were fired or if residents had heard the sound of an engine backfiring, or why the driver of the vehicle that was located fled, Holt added. The investigation is ongoing.
"The challenge we're dealing with this is we have some witnesses that have reported that it was a car backfiring and we have other witnesses that say, 'No, I know it was gunshots,'" Holt said. "What we don't have, necessarily, is someone that actually saw someone shooting.
"We don't have a crime scene, in terms of shell casings, and we also have not had anyone call in saying their house has been shot or their vehicle (has been shot) or things of that nature."
District officials said there was no direct threat to the school at the time the shelter in place was issued. Holt said the shelter in place was issued as a precaution.
With the upcoming 20th anniversary of the Columbine High School shooting and with the situation with another possible threat in Colorado Wednesday, Holt said police weren't going to take it lightly.
"It's always something we take seriously as police officers in general. We're always going to have a large response if we get a report of (shots fired)," he said. "We'd rather have too many officers and have it turn out to not be something than not send enough and not take the threat seriously."
Contributing: Kira Hoffelmeyer, KSL Newsradio; Mark Wetzel, KSL TV
