Nov 13, 2008 9:08 pm US/Pacific
White Powder Sent To Mormon Temples In LA, Utah
LOS ANGELES (AP) ―
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The Los Angeles Mormon Temple was closed Thursday after employees received an envelope filled with an unidentified white powder.
CBS
Two letters containing suspicious white powder were sent Thursday to Mormon temples in Los Angeles and Salt Lake City, where hundreds of people recently gathered to protest the church's support of California's gay marriage ban.
The temple in the Westwood area of Los Angeles was evacuated before a hazardous materials crew determined the envelope's contents was non-toxic, said FBI spokesman Jason Pack.
A temple in downtown Salt Lake City received a similar envelope containing a white powder that spilled onto a clerk's hand. The room was decontaminated and the envelope taken by the FBI for testing. The clerk showed no signs of illness, but the scare shut down a building at Temple Square for more than an hour, said Scott Freitag, a spokesman for the Salt Lake City Fire Department. The temple is on the campus of the headquarters of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Freitag said none of the writing on the envelope was threatening, and that the church received no calls or messages related to the package.
Protests in recent days have targeted the Mormon church, which encouraged its members to support the recently passed amendment banning gay marriage in California.
Pack said authorities were investigating who sent the letters and why.
(© 2009 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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