Armed teacher stops alleged attempted kidnapping during recess
Thomas McDonald
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An armed teacher was able to prevent a kidnapping of an 11-year-old girl from a playground at school.
“An employee was watching the kids from the inside and observed the suspect walk up to this 11-year-old girl [on the playground] and put his hands on her in an attempt to take her,” Lt. Brian Eynon of the Ogden City Police Department told local media.
“He ran outside, the employee did, and confronted the suspect. At that same time, the girl had the ability to pull away from the suspect,” Eynon added.
The armed teacher was able to get all 20 students off the playground and into the school. The suspect, Ira Cox-Berry, then approached the building and began pounding on the glass to force his way in. That’s when the teacher, a concealed carry permit holder, drew the firearm and fended the suspect off until police arrived.
“This employee is protected under the Second Amendment. He followed all policy and procedure at the school, and in this particular case, did everything that he should have done to protect the innocent lives of the children at the school,” said Eynon. “And in this case, it is likely that a life was saved or injury to a life was prevented due to the actions of this heroic employee.”
“The suspect was high, high on some type of narcotic,” he continued.
“This teacher, in particular, was very prepared emotionally to confront a suspect he didn’t know, that was most likely on drugs, could be dangerous, could have been armed, and he took it upon himself to protect and be a hero, frankly, for the children who are on scene there when this went down,” Eynon said.
The Ogden City Police Department released the following statement regarding the incident.
“A teacher intervened when there was a situation that threatened students’ safety. This teacher, this school employee, is a hero. We don’t disagree with that at all,” said Ogden School District Official Jer Bates.
“Yes, it was a very scary situation, something we take very seriously, but it came out with a good ending, meaning no students were physically harmed, no adults were physically harmed, that this was an incident where our emergency response protocols were acted out,” Bates added.
“At this time, to the best of our knowledge, the student is coping quite well considering the very traumatic experience that they endured,” Bates said.