SALT LAKE CITY, Sept. 2, 2016 (Gephardt Daily) — The five-member Salt Lake City Police Civilian Review Board on Friday announced its findings regarding the Feb. 27 police shooting of a 17-year-old male near a homeless shelter on Rio Grande Street.
The citizen review board determined that the two officers involved in the shooting of Abdi Mohamed did not act within the police department’s policy on use of deadly force.
The board, however, did not dispute the fact that Mohamed refused to obey officers’ repeated orders to drop his weapon, an aluminum mop handle he was holding with which he had allegedly attacked a man on the street.
The review panel, in its report, referred to the officers’ body cam video of the incident that seemed to show “no increased urgency” on the part of Mohamed at the time the officers thought he was preparing to strike the man. The panel stated that the man allegedly being attacked was retreating also at a normal pace and not as though he feared for his life. For this reason, the panel decided that the use of lethal force by the officers was not within department policy.
In August, the Salt Lake County District Attorney’s Office declined to press charges against the two police officers, Kory Checketts and Jordan Winegar, having determined that they were legally justified in using deadly force when they shot Mohamed. The report from the District Attorney’s Office indicated the officers were uncertain as to the composition of the 3-foot pole Mohamed refused to put down and they felt he was advancing on the man with the intent to do serious bodily harm.
Mohamed was shot four times. He was transported to the hospital, where he was in a medically induced coma for several weeks. He was charged in juvenile court with aggravated robbery and possession of a controlled substance with intent to distribute. He made his first court appearance in a wheelchair.
Prosecutors have filed a petition to have Mohamed, now 18, certified to stand trial as an adult.
