Another day, another unarmed black teen shot by police.
Abdi Mohamed, 17, was allegedly quarrelling with a man and holding a broomstick near a homeless shelter in Salt Lake City on Saturday night when police spotted him and asked him to drop the stick.
When Mohamed – a father-of-one – did not drop the broomstick shots were fired and the teen was hit in the chest and stomach four times.
According to a press release from the Salt Lake City Police Department issued Sunday afternoon, officers witnessed two males with metal objects attacking a male victim around 8 pm.
The release states, “Officers confronted the two suspects and ordered them to drop the weapons. One of the males complied and dropped the weapon, the other continued to advance on the victim and was shot by officers.”
Now Mohamed, who reportedly immigrated to the United States from Kenya 10 years ago and lives with his girlfriend and infant son, is in hospital fighting for his life.
A witness to the shooting told FOX 13 News police did not appear to give the teen a chance to surrender and entered the situation with guns drawn.
“The police said, ‘drop it’, once, then they shot him four times,” Selam Mohammed said. “We were trying to break it up before the police even came, but the police ran in on foot and pulled their guns out already. They already had them, like, as soon as he was running he was already grabbing for his gun, not even trying to Tase him or anything.”
The incident sparked uproar in the community and people took to the streets to condemn it as a an act of police brutality.
According to reports 100 officers were dispatched to the scene and police stated four people were arrested for crimes related to civil disorder.
Mohamed’s girlfriend, Becca Monson, spoke to Fox 13 and described her partner as a “good caring loving father”.
“He just wanted to make sure we were loved and we were happy he put us in front of everything,” Monson said.
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