SALT LAKE CITY, Utah Aug. 16, 2024 (Gephardt Daily) — Salt Lake City police have sounded an all clear after essentially locking down a hotel in the 100 West block of South Temple early Friday evening.
“We are investigating a suspicious circumstance at the Salt Lake Plaza Hotel, located at 122 West South Temple,” the department said in a post on X(twitter) at 6:19 p.m. Friday.
“We have evacuated 13 floors on the north side of the hotel.
“The rooms on the south, east, and west side are sheltering in place.”
By 6:55 p.m. police posted a tweet saying the suspicious object had been X-rayed, found not to be a threat, and residents were being allowed back into the hotel.
SLCPD spokesman Brent Weisberg told reporters a maintenance worker had been alerted to the object, which turned out to be a suitcase left on hotel property outside the building.
Police reviewed security video to reveal a man placing the suitcase, “manipulating” it oddly, “then quickly running away,” Weisberg said.
Criminal charges are possible, he said, since causing a public alarm is covered in the state criminal code, and the incident “certainly caused a public alarm.”
The thousands of people in the downtown area were impacted, he said, as well as the evening commute, while numerous public resources were diverted for the incident.
