Unified Police have arrested a 21-year-old Midvale man for allegedly threatening to shoot up a children’s hospital Tuesday night.
Primary Children’s Hospital in Salt Lake City was put on lockdown for 13 hours, Sanpete Valley Hospital in Mount Pleasant until Wednesday and Shriner’s Hospital in Salt Lake City was on heightened security as a result, according to a news release from the police department Wednesday.
The report originated in Ephraim, in Sanpete County, and was then reported to local agencies. According to a probable cause statement, the Midvale man texted an Ephraim woman that he wanted to “kill his ex”; that she should "kill her husband and make it look like an accident”; and he made “several suicidal statements.” He proposed one plan to “possibly shoot up a children’s hospital and then take my own life.”
Unified Police Sgt. Melody Gray said Wednesday afternoon that all three of the hospitals were placed on alert because it was unclear which one was being threatened.
The man was located, taken into custody and taken to Intermountain Medical Center in Murray. According to the probable cause statement, he told police the texts “were made as a joke and he was not serious.” Police wrote that the texts included "no clear statement” that the man was “joking or not being serious about the threats to kill.”
Police have booked the man into the Salt Lake County jail for investigation of terroristic threats and threats of violence.