This will take the Dillon Taylor shooting off of the front page.
Darrien Hunt’s family says it can figure only one reason that Saratoga Springs police would shoot to death a “timid” 22-year-old in the back, even if he had what they call a “toy” sword: He was black, and treated with extra suspicion because of it.
“It’s difficult to make any sense out of the situation any other way,” said Cindy Moss, the aunt of Hunt and acting family spokeswoman, on Saturday.
Saratoga Springs police issued a written statement saying claims that its officers’ actions were a result of Hunt’s race “are completely unfounded and speculative. Our officers responded to a call for service and addressed the situation that was presented to them.”
The Utah County Attorney’s Office, which is investigating the incident, also issued a statement saying, “There is currently no indication that race played any role in the confrontation.”
The family’s assertion comes amid still-ongoing protests in Ferguson, Mo., over the police shooting of an unarmed young black man — and cries that blacks are still treated differently by law enforcement. But it also comes as former Saratoga Springs Mayor Mia Love is the favorite to become the first black Republican woman ever elected to Congress.
Hunt was the son of a white mother and a black father. Moss, a white aunt, said she has tended not to believe stories by her sister’s family of mistreatment of blacks in today’s world, “and I don’t like it when the race card is played. It’s easy for us as whites to dismiss it.”
But Moss says her view changed in recent days as the family has tried to figure out what happened in the shooting, and she watched personally how some of her black nephews and nieces are treated.
HT LA Mom