SLC police give ‘all clear’ after reported bomb threat at King’s English Bookshop

SALT LAKE CITY — Salt Lake City Police Department closed off streets late Sunday morning for what it called “a suspicious circumstance.” Hours later, it was confirmed to be a bomb threat at the King’s English Bookshop, which was scheduled to host a drag queen story time event.

A Salt Lake City K-9 certified in detecting explosive materials did not find anything in and near the building, according to a social media post. Officers closed 1500 East from Emerson Avenue to Kensington Street. The roads have since reopened, but the store remained closed Sunday.

According the The King’s English website, drag queen Tara Lipsyncki was scheduled to read at a story time event at 11 a.m. Sunday. KSL TV’s Brianna Chavez spoke with the co-owner of King’s English Bookshop, Calvin Crosby, who said the events that took place were suspicious to him.

“We’ve been doing Drag Queen Storytime for five months previously. We got an unusual amount (of tickets booked) on the ticketing system,” Crosby said.

When Crosby tried to reach out to the person who booked the large amount of tickets, he never received a response.

“As you can imagine, the staff is a little (shaken up). In the interest of taking care of my booksellers, I do feel the right thing to do is not open today,” Crosby said. “It’s going to hurt. Sunday is one of our better days.”

Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall indicated in a social media post that the bookstore was the target of a threat.

“I cannot say this strongly enough, EVERYONE belongs in Salt Lake City. The actions today to cause fear at @KingsEnglish around a drag story time event are not welcome here,” her post said.

I cannot say this strongly enough, EVERYONE belongs in Salt Lake City. The actions today to cause fear at @KingsEnglish around a drag story time event are not welcome here.

We’re looking forward to working with King’s English so this event can happen at a future date for all… https://t.co/WG5CPClt5O

— Mayor Erin Mendenhall (@slcmayor) September 24, 2023

Mendenhall said the event would be rescheduled.

“It disappoints me that our fellow merchants and our neighbors who are so loyal and supportive of the store have to go through this,” Crosby said. “The right ting to do is to put books into kids’ hands, to those without regular access and to normalize diversity.”

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This story was updated from its original publication to reflect more details from the investigation.