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Loading...Three Tooele schools were put on lockdown Thursday while police chased suspects after a reported shooting.
A report of shots fired in the area of Third Street and Broadway Avenue was called into Tooele County Dispatch around 12:30 p.m. Tooele City Police quickly responded and gave chase. Preliminary information was that three teenage boys, about age 14, had shot a gun in a residential area.
Because the area of the reported incident was near East Elementary, Harris Elementary and the Early Learning Center, dispatch contacted the schools, which immediately went into lockdown because some students were being released for the day, said Lt. Adrian Day of Tooele City Police.
“Dispatch let the schools know what we were called to and they decided on their own what to do,” he said.
Day said officers eventually found and talked to family members of the boys, and then the boys themselves. It was discovered that a firework had been set off, not a gun. The matter was left in the hands of the families, and none of the boys were cited, said Day.
“[The families] are handling it. It hasn’t been forwarded through juvenile court or anything,” he said.
The lockdown of the three schools, which began at 12:47 p.m., was lifted about 30 minutes later.
This is the third instance of a school lockdown of Tooele County schools in a month. On March 20, Clarke N. Johnson Junior High School was locked down for 10 minutes as Tooele City Police chased and apprehended a robbery suspect.
Last Monday, Grantsville Junior High School was locked down for two minutes after a report to Grantsville City Police about teenage boys with an assault rifle near the school. Police found the boys two blocks away, who were in fact carrying a pellet gun back home after target shooting in the desert west of town.
The boys were told to be more careful by police and were not cited.
According to lockdown notifications released by the school district, disrict lockdown procedure was followed in each case.
