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UPD officer injured in incident at South Hills Middle School in Riverton; all students safe

Posted at 2:00 PM, Apr 29, 2019
and last updated 2019-04-30 08:57:20-04

RIVERTON, Utah — A Unified Police school resource officer was injured in an altercation with a 21-year-old trespasser at a school in Riverton on Monday.

The incident happened at South Hills Middle School, 13508 S 4000 W.

“The school resource officer at South Hills Middle School noticed a male on their property that obviously did not belong there,” Sgt. Melody Gray with Unified Police Department said.

The officer confronted the trespasser around 2 p.m.

“As the officer approached this male, he immediately attacked our officer with a 2 x 2 piece of wood," Sgt. Gray said.

The officer was able to use a stun gun to subdue the trespasser, who is now in custody.

The officer suffered serious, but non-life threatening injuries, according to police.

A Jordan School District representative said the school was not on lockdown and all students are safe.

"We`re grateful that our hall monitors did exactly as they were trained to do and that we have first responders that are here in our schools," Mike Anderson with Jordan School District said. "They did their job and they did it extremely well today."

A booking photo of Kalen Cook.

Kalen Cook faces two counts of aggravated assault on a police officer, resisting arrest, trespassing and possession of a controlled substance in connection with the incident, according to Unified Police.

“I’m just glad that he was caught," Brenda Diamond, the mother of a student said.  "I’m glad everything went good and none of the kids were hurt.”