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Kearns standoff over; ‘soft’ lockdown lifted at nearby school

Posted at 12:55 PM, Feb 01, 2013
and last updated 2013-02-01 17:08:35-05

KEARNS, Utah — The suspect in a standoff in Kearns Friday afternoon has been taken into custody, and the “soft” lockdown at a nearby elementary school has been lifted.

A SWAT team responded to a home at 5294 S Heath Avenue, where the suspect had barricaded himself inside.The home is located across the street from Western Hills Elementary School. The suspect surrendered to police and was taken into custody.

As a precaution, the school was placed on a “soft” lockdown, meaning children are not allowed to leave unless picked up by a parent or guardian. The lockdown was lifted at about 2 p.m.

Granite School District posted the following message on their Facebook page at approximately 12:50 p.m. Friday.

A few minutes ago, Western Hills was placed on a “soft” lockdown protocol by local law enforcement. This is a precautionary measure due to an incident that local law enforcement are dealing with in our neighboring community. There is no threat to student safety and no students have been harmed. Once again, this lockdown is simply a precautionary measure to ensure student safety. 

However, as this situation is ongoing, we will not be releasing students generally when school ends. Parents or emergency contacts will need to come to the school and pick up their student directly. We will be keeping the students on site until the situation is resolved by law enforcement or until all the parents have picked up their children. 

Thank you for your patience as we work to keep your children safe. We will update information [on Facebook] and on twitter as we are notified by law enforcement.

Western Hills Elementary school is located at 5190 South Heath Avenue (5030 W.) in Kearns.

Continue to watch FOX 13 News and fox13now.com for more details as they become available.