Prosecutor: Police shooting that wounded Utah teen justified
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — The fight started over a low-level drug deal gone wrong and a dispute over $1.10 outside Salt Lake City's bustling homeless shelter.
The two officers who fired four times at Abdullahi "Abdi" Mohamed that cold winter night, sending him into a coma that nearly killed him, were cleared Monday by a Utah prosecutor who said they acted appropriately because they believed Mohamed was about to seriously injure or kill the other man with a metal broom handle.
Gill said he was thorough and methodical — including asking an outside expert on police use of force to review the investigation — in part because of the public outcry.
Court records show he started getting in trouble with police at age 12 and spent time in juvenile detention centers for theft, trespassing and assault.
The victim, a man who prosecutors only identified as K.M., had come to the homeless shelter to get food and buy drugs, Gill said Monday while providing the most complete recap yet of the events.
Officers spotted the attack, and police body camera footage recorded an officer telling the suspects to drop the metallic poles at least 10 times, Gill said.