This story is becoming all too common in the black community. Police overacting to a black man, shoot and kill him under suspicious circumstances. This time it happened to a mixed, black man near Salt Lake City, Utah. With many in the white community not believing the police react differently to black suspects, it should be interesting to see how this case shakes out with a grieving white mother at the front of the controversy.
Saratoga Springs police get a call of a “suspicious man” walking near businesses carrying a “samuri-type sword”, so they rushed to the scene. According to the police, Darrien Hunt lunged and attacked them, so they shot him to death. However, eye witnesses at the scene of the shooting report something different.
The attorney of the Hunt family, Randall Edwards, contradicts their story completely. In fact, he says, Darrien Hunt was shot “numerous times, all from the rear.”
Edwards released a statement:
“This [autopsy report] is consistent with statements made by witnesses on the scene, who report that Darrien was shot to death while running away from police. It would appear difficult, if not impossible, to reconcile these facts with a story that Darrien was lunging toward the officers when he was shot.”
Here is where the story takes a further turn for the worse. Hunt’s mother says her son was carrying a 3 foot “toy” sword he bought at an Asian gift store when the police approached him.
“No white boy with a little sword would they shoot while he’s running away,” she says.
Darrien Hunt’s mother is white and his father is black.
The Saratoga Springs police department released a statement saying the claims of Mr. Hunt being shot over racial reasons are “completely unfounded and speculative. Our officers responded to a call for service and addressed the situation that was presented to them.”
The case is under investigation.
The Darrien Hunt shooting and killing comes on the heels of many other controversial police shootings around the country this year involving the killing of unarmed, nonthreatening, black men. Many in the community are calling for a change.
Source: The Grio
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