USU community responds to bomb and shooter threats
**Editor’s Note: This article was written before information was released about the active shooter hoax call at USU on April 9. Click this link to read about that call.
On March 31, two 16-year-old boys told a Walmart employee there was a bomb in the store, according to North Park Police, and then fled the scene.
The Walmart employees then evacuated the store, according to police. As the employees and customers were evacuating, Justin Weizhaar, a Utah State University junior majoring in biology, was pulling into the parking lot.
Going on a routine grocery run with his wife, Weizhaar noted his surprise when he saw the traffic and large number of cop cars at the scene.
When entering the parking lot, a police officer asked him to leave. Weizhaar later learned from a Walmart employee there was a bomb threat.
The North Park Police Department apprehended the two suspects after the Walmart employees gave them still shots of the two individuals. The teenagers were arrested and sentenced to juvenile detention.
North Park Police Chief Kent Goodrich did not respond to the Statesman’s inquiries by the time of this paper’s publication.
“I think the timing was very poor. My wife is a kindergarten teacher, and so the shootings in Nashville had her anxiety a little higher than normal,” Weizhaar said. “I think for a couple of younger adults to go in and tell a Walmart employee that they have a bomb somewhere in the store — it really affects the employee mindset, thinking that even a small town in Utah isn’t as safe as everybody thinks it could be.”
This incident happened just two days after several Utah schools — including Ogden High School — received false reports of a school shooter.
To Maddie Hancock, a USU student majoring in communications, this was personal — her brother, Ethan, was in Ogden High at the time of the threat.
“I wish a lot more people just wouldn’t dismiss how serious this is. (I was) pretty much sick to my stomach all day thinking about my siblings who are still in school — and how easy, and how not unlikely it would be for someone to come in and shoot up a school,” Hancock said.
Despite the concerns for her brother, Hancock said she feels that the Aggie community is “a lot safer.”
Captain Kent Harris, current USU interim police chief, noted that USU is working to create a safe environment by putting in more cameras and lights in walkways that were previously dark.
Harris also noted that students need to prepare and be aware of any dangerous situations.
“One of the things that students can do is they can visit our website and review the video on ‘Run, Hide, Fight,’ and be up on those procedures,” Harris said.
Michael Kuehn, USU’s director of public safety, explained the importance of reporting suspicious activity.
“Be observant, be vigilant, and you know, if you see something that is really odd, something just doesn’t look right — say something. Just call us. Never hesitate to call public safety,” Kuehn said.
Ellis Bruch, the director of USU Emergency Management, said that if a student were to ever make a dangerous threat, “it would be investigated at the fullest capacity of the university, not just law enforcement. That kind of thing is very disruptive.”
Hancock noted that a threat “is an act of terrorism” by the way it may affect others, and “shouldn’t be taken lightly.”
“You always have to consider how something so small that you could consider a joke, or could consider funny, could ultimately really harm someone else,” Weizhaar said. “I just feel the best way to prepare is by taking it seriously, but not over-panicking.”
-Jenny.Carpenter@usu.edu
Featured photo by Aspen Marshall