There is a highly disturbing controversy outside of Salt Lake City where Darrien Hunt, 22, was shot six times by police officers who claimed that he charged them with a sword. Hunt was dressed in a Japanese anime costume with a 2 ½ foot steel sword that the family insists was nothing more than a prop. An autopsy released this week shows that several of the shots entered in the back of his body. The case has raised racial concerns since Hunt was black and the officers were white.
The shooting occurred on September 10th after someone called about a man swinging a sword. Hunt was wearing a red shirt and blue pants similar to an anime character. The officer said that he fired three shots when Hunt charged at him as the officer got out of his car. When Hunt ran away, the police fired four more times.
No drugs were found in his system and a picture taken by a bystander shows Hunt smiling and talking to the two officers. The prosecutors have acknowledged that Hunt talked to officers after they arrived and asked them for a ride. If that is true, they clearly would have gotten a close view of the sword.
The officers have been identified as Cpl. Matthew Schauerhamer and Officer Nicholas Judson from Saratoga Springs just south of Salt Lake City.
What is striking is that days after the shooting, the officers still had not been interviewed according to some coverage and that account of the police department changed. The delay in the interviews raised a past controversy over police moving to protect officers from having to give statements immediately after shootings. We discussed the outrageous policy of Dallas Police Chief David Brown revealed a new policy that would require officers involved in a shooting to wait 72 hours before making a statement. The policy came after a scandal where a surveillance video showed one of Brown’s officers shooting a mentally ill suspect for no apparent reason. The video contradicted the officer’s testimony and undermined the charge against the victim. Brown’s solution was not greater disciplining and monitoring of officers but to impose a delay to allow officers to craft their statements.
The police officers say that they asked Hunt to put the sword on the hood of the patrol car and that he refused — saying “it is my sword.” They say that he then began to swing the sword at them when they decided to use lethal force to protect themselves and others. Below is the picture of sword which seems quite real.
What I am most interested in is the witness testimony. If someone took the above picture, clearly there must be eye witness accounts as to whether Hunt was swinging the sword at the officers. If so, it could be found a justifiable use of force under controlling standards. Once again, total transparency is needed in such a case to assure the public that an independent and thorough investigation is being conducted.
Source: USA Today
Another wrinkle to the story… calling all apologists: http://www.salon.com/2014/11/10/mike_brown_should_have_been_rescued_inside_the_outrage_that_happened_after_his_shooting/
Simon Hemingway has a Ph.D. from the University of Texas and works in marketing communications.
This needs to die. It is being marketed,
Don’t you think you would have heard something about this by now if it wasn’t something more to stir it up?
Ferguson Police are mean to Black People and White People both. I lived there. I have left extensive comments on earlier blogs about how in laws were physically abused by these police and were caucasian and I was abused by being taken to court for no good reason but to charge me court costs. It was common. The police are mean in that area and they need to be cleaned up. Unfortunately, Al Sharpton had to make a Racial Issue out of it and Mrs, Brown had to drag her Families dirty laundry into it wanting money out of the Michael Brown Memorial Fund. Yes, you are going to pull that very Progressive Salon Newspaper and at the Same time you will get Conservative Rags having Lesley McSpadden being the Robbery Attacker and they have a Photoshopped Youtube here for the stupid and gullible
They took our money !!!
Pearlie Gordon identified Lesley McSpadden (seen below), McSpadden’s spouse, Louis Head, and several others as the “attackers.” More than $1500 in merchandise and $400 in cash “was stolen by unknown subjects” who fled before police arrived, the report notes
You just have to read it. My friend told me. I shut my cable box off a couple weeks ago. But everyone has a different spin and agenda.
I can’t believe any of these people. I pity that poor dead boy for having parents like that.
http://theconservativetreehouse.com/2014/11/06/details-surface-mike-browns-mom-lesley-mcspadden-was-the-robbery-attacker/
Sandi Hemming
Someone puts his fist through the car, causing the gun to fire and injuring the policeman’s eye. The policeman gets out of his car, his duty to protect people. Someone crazy enough to attack him in his car could be dangerous. I see that as brave!———————————————–
Sandi, why do we need to wait for the facts to come in? According to your comment above, the facts are in and Mike is guilty of what you accuse him of, and Officer Wilson is not guilty of anything!
I see it too often about this issue, the same people calling for restraint and patience are the same ones who have already reached the conclusion that they expect the grand jury to arrive to.
Let’s imagine that there are the same numbers of witnesses on both sides with diverging accounts, who gets the right to decide who is more worthy of being heard? The grand jury, I know!
Whatever it decides doesn’t necessarily mean it is the just decision. And the only reason you speak so glowingly of the grand jury is because you expect it to confirm your conclusion.
While the autopsy sides with Mike, the ballistics may be interpreted as siding with officer Wilson. So we do have some sort of a tie. I say Mike was killed unnecessarily, you say he was shot necessarily. What then gives you the right to urge for patience and to wait for the facts when your mind is already made up?
Honesty, folks, honesty!
My comment was about the officer being cowardly. With the information we have so far, I view the officer as brave. Injured, he could have stayed in his car.
This is my comment on the Ferguson Issue. It needs to die. These people that are hanging out there need to go home and let that community heal. All this arguing is after the fact and doing no good at all.
The truth of the matter is in my opinion until these men meet their maker there will be no justice because there will be no earthly justice. Just a circus and a zoo. That is North County St Louis with Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson and Don Lemon stirring the pot. What a witches brew. That is almost as good as one of Squeekies poems lol
Yeah, I know. BTW, I agree with that comment you made on the ebola thread with that guy who came on “Speak’s his MInd” lol 🙂
happy puppies, no Al Sharpton in Utah.
Had a real hard time logging in just then
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What I think is interesting is we really aren’t hearing much about the Utah incident but oh so much about the Ferguson incident. You have to loooooove the media and Don Lemon and his Hi Jinks of CNN