Should this sentence have who or whom?: The student whom police said had a revolver in his school locker on Friday apparently will not be returning to school anytime soon.

Question

anonymous · Answer

Who (whom, whomever) refers to people. That and which refer to groups or things.
The party referenced is a group. In this case, "police" are the ones being referenced. i.e. ...police said.
I believe you need to use the word "that."

anonymous · Answer

Thanks for the reply, but the party referenced here is not police. The party referenced is the student. Either way, police are people, too. I received a reply outside of this website that the correct answer is who. The inclusion of "police said" into the sentence does not change the rule that when you're talking about the subject part of a phrase, you should use "who" and when you're talking about the object part of a phrase, you should use "whom."