(Photo: Salt Lake County Jail)
MIDVALE – A Midvale man is booked into the Salt Lake County Jail after police say he cause a panic at children’s hospitals in Utah. Some of these hospitals went into lockdown to keep patients and staff safe.
Investigators say 21-year-old Terek Wesley Fleming made threats on social media that he wanted to “shoot up” a hospital then turn the gun on himself. Unified Police Sergeant Melody Gray says he also texted someone this same message. That woman reportedly called the Sanpete County Sheriff’s Office who spread the news about the threat.
“They then started notifying Salt Lake City PD, Unified Police, UHP and the hospitals, which created, as you can imagine, a bit of a panic,” Gray says.
Fleming never specified which hospital he was talking about, but officers notified administrators in Salt Lake County after police tracked down Fleming in Midvale.
“Given that we know he lives in Salt Lake County, obviously, we then notified Primary Children’s as well as Shriner’s Hospital,” she adds.
Gray says Primary Children’s Hospital went into lockdown for roughly 13 hours. Other places took extra security measures, as well.
“Shriner’s Hospital did what they call a ‘code green,’ which is an increased security level that they have since they’re not open like the other hospitals are, 24 hours a day. Then, a hospital in Sanpete [County] was also on lockdown,” Gray says.
Why did Fleming reportedly do this?
She says, “We just know there are some relationship issues that spurred this stuff off.”
Affidavits say Fleming reportedly told the woman to kill her husband and make it look like an accident. Investigators say there was nothing found in Fleming’s home to indicate he was actually planning on following through on his threats.
He was booked into the Salt Lake County Jail for making terroristic threats and threats of violence. Gray says more charges might come in the future.