There is merely lone reason that Saratoga Springs police would shoot a “coy” 22-year-old in the back, still if he had what they call a “toy” weapon. He was black, and treated with added suspicion only because of it, Darrien Hunt’s family said.
Cindy Moss, the aunt of Hunt and acting family spokeswoman said on Saturday, “It’s difficult to make any sense out of the situation any other way.”
The officers’ actions were a result of Hunt’s race “are totally baseless and tentative. Our officers countered to a call for service and speaks to the situation that was presented to them” claimed by Saratoga Springs police in a written statement.
“There is currently no indication that race played any role in the confrontation.” The Utah County Attorney’s Office, which is examining the incident, declared.
The family’s statement comes along with yet-ongoing protests in Ferguson. Besides the police killing of an unarmed young black man and wept that blacks are still treated another way by law enforcement. However it also comes as ex- Saratoga Springs Mayor Mia Love is the preferred to become the first black Republican woman ever nominated to Congress.
According to the officials, the hunt was the son of a white mother and a black father. “I apt not to trust the stories by her sister’s family of abusing blacks in today’s era, plus I don’t like it when the race card is played. It’s easy for us as whites to dismiss it,” Moss, a white aunt, said.
Although, my observation tainted in the current days as the family is trying to figure out what was actually happened in the shooting, and I seemed myself how some of her black nephews and nieces are treated, Moss said.
She told the family went to a dollar store to buy vases for a memorial, for instance. One of my black nephews was gazing at items himself “and people from the store started following him. Thus he did what he has done a lot of times. He strolled over to my WHITE sister and said, ‘That’s my mom right there.’ Then they stop following him.”
Utah man was gunshot on Wednesday. “Preliminary evidence suggests that Mr. Hunt brandished the sword and lunged toward the officers with the sword, at which time Mr. Hunt was shot,” a statement from the Utah County attorney’s office on Saturday said. Meanwhile, Police had explained it as a samurai sword.
“An independent autopsy exposed that Hunt was shot numerous times, all from the back,” the Hunts’ attorney, Randall Edwards, confirmed in a statement.
Edwards said that, “This is consistent with statements made by witnesses on the scene, who report that Darrien was shot to death while running away from the police.” “It would appear difficult, if not impossible; to reconcile these facts with a story that Darrien was attack toward the officers when he was shot. We continue to hope that a full investigation will reveal the whole truth about this tragedy.”
Moss thought the 3-foot sword strapped to Hunt’s back was a decorator piece that is more of a toy, but it “does look like a sword from a distance.” She said the blade is rounded and would not cut much. And also tell that “The police make it sound like it was a big sword he was using. I’m offended that they even say he was armed with a weapon.”
“He was listening to his music, and maybe swinging his sword around to it at times. You don’t deserve to be killed for that. … A lot of people who went to Comic Con last week probably looked a little different, too, in their costumes. Do we want them gunned down when they are just trying to have a fun day?” moss argued.
She told that Hunt’s mother had been influencing him to find a job, and they think he may have begun to apply at a Panda Express restaurant near where he was shot. Acted young for his age added that “He may have worn it ‘the sword’ thinking it was cool and would help. It’s just the sort of thing he would d.” She also said he was “nervous” after he suffers for years from an insulting father who no longer lives with the family.
Moss said the family has been shown a picture snapped by a witness shortly before the shooting, it shows police talking to Hunt. She said, “He is relaxed and his hands are down to his side.”
On Jan. 5 hunt was booked on suspicion of several counts of physical attack, child abuse and domestic violence. Later he pleaded responsible in abeyance on one physical attack count, this mean that it would not count as an assurance if he did not re-offend shown by Utah County Jail records. Moss said it resulted from “a brother-and-sister thing” of siblings joking and fighting with him, and him fighting back when some of their friends punched him he also inform that family has received “nothing” in information from police and investigators.
For now, the family is just grieving Hunt and trying to get money for a funeral, Moss said. She further told that we opened a funeral fund account at America First Credit Union.