Police investigate after bomb threat shuts down drag storytime at Utah bookstore
A bookshop was forced to close down ahead of a drag storytime event due to a bomb threat. (Facebook/The King’s English Bookshop)
Police are investigating after a serious bomb threat forced a Utah bookstore to shut down ahead of a scheduled drag queen storytime event.
Officers arrived at The King’s English Bookshop in Salt Lake City, Utah at 9.30am on Sunday (24 September) on a “suspicious circumstance.”
Store owner Calvin Crosby called police to the scene before staff showed up for the all-ages drag storytime event, which has been hosted by the bookstore all summer.
A bomb-sniffing K-9 was brought to the scene from the agency’s Airport Division to assist in the investigation after the store was evacuated.
At approximately 11.10am, police officials gave the “all clear” when no evidence of explosives was found at the scene, and turned the building back over to Crosby.
The King’s English Bookshop confirmed on their Facebook page that the drag queen storytime event, which had been scheduled for 11am, was cancelled “for the safety of our booksellers and loyal readers.”
Salt Lake City police have confirmed that the investigation into who made the threat remains ongoing.
Speaking to The Salt Lake Tribune, Crosby said that the storytime event is usually a calm event for all ages and “a fun celebration of diversity.”
Drag queen Tara Lipsyncki, who has been hosting the story time events since they first started in June, recalled the moment Crosby called to tell her that Sunday’s event was cancelled due to a bomb threat.
She told the local paper that, after turning to her husband to tell him what had happened, they both thought: “Is it sad that we aren’t fazed anymore?”
She added: “I’m more frustrated because it’s like we are making so much progress with all this … we’ve been doing so well. It’s so annoying and frustrating because people can’t live and let live.”
Following the incident, Salt Lake City’s mayor, Erin Mendenhall, took to X (formerly Twitter) to express her disappointment towards the incident.
“I cannot say this strongly enough, EVERYONE belongs in Salt Lake City,” she wrote.
“The actions 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 those who wanted to be there today.”
