Layton school bomb: Painstaking security cam review begins

Detectives say it could be well into May before they know whether two weeks' worth of security camera video will help identity the person or persons who threw a pipe bomb onto the roof of Layton high school.

Layton police Lt. Shawn Horton said that as of Thursday, some 500 hours worth of video, from 14 different cameras at Mountain View Elementary School, had been turned over to investigators by the Davis School District.

"We've just barely begun reviewing the video. In the little bit of it we have been able to look at, there has been nothing found so far to identify a suspect," Horton said.

He had no firm estimate for how long the review could take, though he indicated it was unlikely results could be expected before next week or possibly later. Most of Wednesday was spent just collecting the voluminous raw video, he noted.

The pipe bomb — a 4-inch length of three-quarter-inch diameter white plastic PVC pipe, filled with gunpowder and capped at both ends — was found by a janitor Monday morning on the roof of the school, located at 2025 E. 3100 North.

Horton said the employee originally took the device into the school, but by the time police arrived, the pipe bomb had been taken to the school's parking lot.

More than 700 students and staff were evacuated to a nearby church for the remainder of the day and parents were contacted by Davis School District officials to pick up their children there.

Layton police and firefighters, as well as the Davis County Sheriff's Office bomb squad, were dispatched. Hill Air Force Base provided two bomb-sniffing dogs to help secure and clear the school's interior.

The pipe bomb, confirmed to be a working explosive device lacking only a fuse, was deactivated by bomb squad technicians using a special device spraying a high-pressure stream of water.

Classes resumed on normal schedules Tuesday, school district officials said.

Horton said anyone with information on this incident is asked to contact Layton police at 801-497-8300.

remims@sltrib.com

Twitter: @remims