South Salt Lake school gun scare yields student arrest

A student who allegedly came to school with a BB gun was taken into custody without incident Friday afternoon near a South Salt Lake high school.

South Salt Lake police were called to assist the Granite School District police in apprehending the 17-year-old male near Granite Peaks High School, 500 East and 3900 South.

No shots were fired, no one was threatened and no injuries were noted during the 12:19 p.m. incident.

Granite School District spokesman Ben Horsley confirmed that the weapon, which looked like a real firearm, turned out to be a BB gun pistol.

The incident began when the school principal, smelling tobacco coming from a group of students that included the teen, searched their backpacks. She allegedly found marijuana and the pistol inside the teen's backpack.

While taking the boy to her office to meet with the school's resource officer, the youth grabbed his backpack and fled the school. That prompted a 10- to 15-minute security alert at several schools in the area — until South Salt Lake police located and arrested the boy on a nearby street.

The youth was booked into a juvenile detention facility, Horsley said. The boy also likely will be expelled.

remims@sltrib.com

Twitter: @remims