ST. GEORGE – St. George Police responded to two suspicious incidents Tuesday afternoon: one in the area of the medical building adjacent to the 400 East campus of Dixie Regional Medical Center and the other in the Visitors’ Center of the St. George Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The first case involved a possible firearm sighted and the second case involved a magazine to a firearm discovered.
First, the police responded to the area around the old hospital facility, currently the 400 East campus of Dixie Regional Medical Center, around 1 p.m. when someone reported a suspicious person they thought was carrying a gun, Sgt. Sam Despain said. The report included no description of the individual and officers had little to go on, Despain said, but they spent part of the day in the area looking for the person.
This report came from someone within the brown stone medical building adjacent to the 400 East Campus, Dixie Regional’s communications director, Terri Draper, said. This was her understanding after receiving two briefings on the matter.
“From the report I got, they thought they saw someone with (a gun),” Draper said. “The account that was given us was not very specific,” she said, referring to the briefings. We take these kinds of things very seriously, she said.
Access between the medical building and the hospital facility is restricted to those with security access, Draper said. An unauthorized person could not access the hospital facility from the medical building.
About one hour later, Despain said, a report was received from a person working at the St. George Temple Visitors’ Center who had found a magazine to a .22 caliber firearm in the Visitors’ Center. Police investigated and collected the magazine.
There is no reason to believe the two suspicious incidents are related, Despain said, despite the close proximity. No suspects have been located at either incident and there is not any type of investigation going on at this point, he said.
The 400 East campus of Dixie Regional Medical Center is located at 544 South 400 East, the medical building is located at 515 South 300 East, and the Visitors’ Center of the St. George Temple is located at 490 South 300 East in St. George.
There have been no reports of crimes witnessed in relation to these incidents, Despain said.
Anyone having any information that might shed light on either incident is asked to contact the St. George Police Department, telephone 435-627-4301, or call 911.
St. George News Editor-in-Chief Joyce Kuzmanic contributed to this report.
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Wow someone had a gun. Lots of people have guns.
It’s not illegal to carry a gun. What did that person do wrong?
Although I do not own a “.22 caliber firearm”, I would like to claim the magazine if no one else steps up to claim it. At least they didn’t call it a “clip”.
The distinction between a clip and a mag is of interest mainly to the gun fetishists. The rest of us would have let it slide. Pew, pew DoubleTap.
Bender…it’s not “Pew pew”. It’s tap tap….please get it right.
And yes…you could call it a fetish, one I truly relish. Hahaha!
Now we’re getting somewhere DoubleTap. The first step to recovery is recognizing the problem.
No reason to suspect a connection between the two incidents involving firearms a half-block from each other?? Of course there is a likely connection, and the fact that weaponry was found inside the LDS visitors center is cause for concern. They may not have much to go on for an investigation, but the missionaries and the police should be vigilant.
Firearms present in an armed-to-the-teeth, gun-crazy population? What a shocker. The real story would be if we didn’t have regular gun sightings.
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Every incident is a potential 9/11 to our jittery and frightened population and the cops and politicians and media are happy to play along.
.
“…the only thing we have to fear is…fear itself — nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes…”
I’m with Bender on this one.