Teen who tried to take school officer's gun last year arrested in new gun case, police say

A 16-year-old boy who police say attacked a school resource officer last year and tried to take the officer's gun has been arrested again in a different case involving a gun, Cottonwood Heights police say.

A 16-year-old boy who police say attacked a school resource officer last year and tried to take the officer's gun has been arrested again in a different case involving a gun, Cottonwood Heights police say. (Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret News)


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COTTONWOOD HEIGHTS — Cottonwood Heights police have arrested a 16-year-old boy and an 18-year-old man they say gave the boy a gun.

That same boy was arrested a year ago and accused of attacking a school resource officer at Brighton High School and trying to take her gun, according to a police booking affidavit. The investigation into what the 16-year-old intended to do with the gun he obtained, or whether he had made any threats on social media, was underway Friday, according to Cottonwood Heights police.

The man accused of providing the gun to the teen was arrested Thursday for investigation of making an illegal transaction of a firearm by a restricted person. James Woodford Blackburn was booked into the Salt Lake County Jail. Information on why Blackburn, who turned 18 in July, was a restricted person was not immediately available Friday.

The 16-year-old boy's mother discovered that her son had a loaded handgun, and told police that Blackburn had given him the gun, and also showed officers text messages about the transaction, the police affidavit states.

The same boy "assaulted a police officer last year at the local high school and had attempted to take her firearm," according to the affidavit. The boy arrested in that incident also caused a scene in 2019 by throwing a food additive powder into a school bus at Butler Middle School.

Following his arrest last year, police said the boy had an "extensive history" with police. At the time of that arrest, he was attempting to reenter the school after being expelled for the incident at Butler. But while in the school's counselor office, the boy began to "cause a scene" for an unknown reason and the school resource officer, who works for the Cottonwood Heights Police Department, attempted to escort him out of the building.

The boy attacked the officer, according to police, choking and punching her, then tried to grab her gun while threatening to use it against her and others. Several other parents who saw the commotion joined in and attempted to pull the boy off of the officer.

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Pat Reavy is a longtime police and courts reporter. He joined the KSL.com team in 2021, after many years of reporting at the Deseret News and KSL NewsRadio before that.

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