The Utah middle school student took action immediately. After hearing and seeing evidence on a September 2022 day that another student planned a shooting, the witness found the intended victim and escorted her and her best friend to the school office.
Vernal Police Department school resource officer Orion Young walked into the office shortly after the witness began telling a secretary what happened. He could see looks of great concern on the teens’ faces.
The boy told Young that he saw the 13-year-old suspect in possession of a gun and heard him say he planned to shoot his ex-girlfriend, who the witness brought to the office.
The SRO learned the suspect’s class schedule from the secretary. He didn’t implement a lockdown, because students were passing between classes and a lockdown would have sent the suspect into whatever classroom he was nearest at the time, making him more difficult to locate and possibly sparking a hostage situation.
Young ran toward the suspect’s next classroom. On the way, he radioed for assistance from the school district’s other SRO and patrol officers.
Young spotted the suspect through the classroom door’s window and could see a backpack on the floor next to him. Hearing through his radio’s earpiece that the other SRO had arrived at the school, Young entered the classroom and approached the suspect from behind.
“When he turned around and saw me, I was only a couple feet away,” Young told NASRO. “At that point, he did actually reach for his bag, so I yelled at him not to touch his bag, and I closed the distance and grabbed the bag and his arm.”
Young instructed the suspect to keep his hands where he could see him and “assisted him in standing up” from his desk. The SRO removed the suspect from the classroom and searched him. Less than three minutes had elapsed from the time the SRO learned of the weapon in the building.
When the other SRO arrived at the classroom, he secured the bag and Young escorted the suspect to the school office. Young said that during that walk the boy said, “If there’s a gun in my bag, I didn’t put it there.” At that point, Young said, “I knew there was a high probability that the witness' story was true.”
When the bag arrived at the office, Young searched it and found a subcompact Colt .25 ACP pistol, with its safety off, six rounds in its magazine and none in the chamber.
The SRO interviewed witnesses in separate rooms and obtained relevant video from the school’s security cameras. At the police station, Young joined a detective for his interview of the suspect, knowing that the suspect might be more comfortable with a familiar face in the room.
The investigation revealed that the suspect had been in a romantic relationship that became rocky. After arguments and traded insults, the suspect told several others of plans to shoot both his ex-girlfriend and the girl’s best friend, according to witness statements.
Although it was September and Young’s first year as an SRO, he’d already developed positive relationships with many students. “That really helped me gather information,” Young said.
Officers discovered that the boy stole the gun from his grandparents. They had hidden it in a closet of a bedroom they kept locked. The boy apparently waited weeks for the grandparents to accidentally leave the bedroom door unlocked so he could grab the gun.
A juvenile court sentenced the boy after he pleaded guilty to theft of a firearm and no contest to other charges. The school expelled him.
It wasn’t just Young’s first year as an SRO, it was the first year of the school’s SRO program.
Young said without the new program, it would have taken police much longer to respond, find the suspect in a building with which they’d be unfamiliar, and apprehend the suspect. During that time, a school administrator who lacks experience in dealing with armed suspects could have attempted, unsuccessfully, to confiscate the gun. The suspect could have easily fired before police arrived.
“There’s not a doubt in my mind that someone would have been shot,” Young said. “With the help of witnesses, school staff, and other law enforcement officers, I firmly believe that lives were saved that day.”
Do you have a similar SRO success story? If so, contact NASRO PIO Jay Farlow, [email protected].