Autopsy: Darrien Hunt shot four times in back
An autopsy performed on a mixed-raced man who was fatally shot by Utah police while armed with a samurai sword as part of a costume shows that he died of multiple gunshot wounds.
The autopsy, released Tuesday, revealed that 22-year-old Darrien Hunt was shot four times in his back.
The state autopsy documents six gunshot wounds [total that penetrated Wilson’s body]. That generally confirms the results of an independent autopsy released by his family, who said Hunt was treated differently because he was black.
“I don’t think anyone would have thought twice if it wasn’t someone with an afro,” said his mother, Susan Hunt, on Tuesday. Police say race wasn’t a factor.
Hunt was shot Sept. 10 as he walked around a strip mall in the Utah city of Saratoga Springs wearing a red shirt and blue pants similar to an anime character and a 2 ½ foot steel sword. Police said they were responding to a 911 call about a man with a sword when he lunged at them, swinging the weapon.
But his family says the sword was decorative rather than dangerous.
According to a narrative in the autopsy, an officer fired three shots when Hunt charged at him, swinging the sword, as the officer got out of his car. Hunt ran away and police fired four more times as they chased him, according to the report.
An attorney representing Hunt’s family disputed the account, saying the picture taken by a witness shows Hunt smiling as he spoke with officers. The autopsy found no drugs in his system.
Chief Deputy Tim Taylor said that Hunt spoke with officers after they arrived and asked them for a ride. According to the autopsy, four of the gunshots found in Hunt’s body traveled back to front. A fifth shot struck his left arm, and appears to have come from the front while a sixth traveled down after entering the back of his forearm.
The officers, who are white, have been identified as Cpl. Matthew Schauerhamer and Officer Nicholas Judson.
Black lives matter.
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