Last updated: 1/26/2023 6:38 p.m.

TAYLORSVILLE, Utah (ABC4) — Taylorsville High School was placed on lockdown after reports of shots being fired in the parking lot on Thursday afternoon, according to authorities.

Lt. Jake Hill with the Taylorsville Police Department said they received multiple reports of shots fired at Taylorsville High around 12:30 p.m. as well as a physical altercation in progress at the parking lot.

Upon arrival, police reportedly found a gun casing on the ground. They also learned that a group of juveniles had a fight in the parking lot, and one of them produced a gun and fired a shot. No fatalities or injuries were reported.

The juveniles dispersed following the altercation, Hill said. Three of them were reportedly found in the neighborhood and taken into custody. Police initially believed the other three juveniles may have gone inside Taylorsville High, but they said they did not find anyone after searching through the campus.

Authorities are working on determining whether the juveniles involved are Taylorsville High students. Hill said police do not believe the three individuals they have in custody were the ones who fired the shot.

“It scares me as a parent,” said April Taylor, mother of two Taylorsville High students. “It’s not something I ever want my son to ever have to go through when going to school. I want it to be a safe place for him.”

Brian Burgess, a sophomore at Taylorsville High School, said he felt relatively safe during the lockdown, but it does make him nervous when he thinks about what happened in the parking lot.

Granite School District officials said students were released as normal with buses sticking to the original schedule.

Two other schools, Plymouth and Hartvigsen Elementary were placed on a lockout, meaning schools are proceeding as normal, but the building has been secured. Vista Elementary and Bennion Junior High were also briefly placed on a lockout protocol, but they have since been lifted, according to Granite School District Spokesperson Ben Horsely.

Horsely said he understands why parents were concerned and showed up at the school, but he said this could create other dangers. 

“We know the building’s secure, but we don’t know about the outside of the campus,” he said. “We don’t know what potential threats are in the area, and so we do ask parents [whose kids are] in a lockdown or lockout protocol to stay away from the campus for their own safety and also for the safety of their students and staff.”

The investigation remains ongoing.

The Granite School District released the following statement in response to the incident:

No further information is available at the moment.