Police shooting that wounded Utah teenager ruled justified

Demonstrators march to protest police abuse in the US.

Two police officers were justified in shooting and critically wounding a teenage refugee from Somalia in a confrontation that sparked unrest and protests in Salt Lake City earlier this year, a Utah prosecutor decided on Monday.

Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill said officers acted appropriately when they fired at Abdullahi "Abdi" Mohamed because police believed he was about to seriously injure or kill a man with a metal broom handle.

The February 27 fight began after a failed drug deal and a dispute over $1.10 near the city's bustling homeless shelter, Gill said at a news conference.

The officers yelled multiple times for Mohamed to drop the weapon as he and another man attacked the victim, but he refused, Gill said.


They shot him four times. Gill revealed the most complete account yet of what led to the fight. The victim, a man who prosecutors only identified as KM, was near the shelter to buy drugs.

He approached Mohamed and asked if he could purchase marijuana. Mohamed told the man he only had methamphetamine but demanded the man's money anyway, Gill said.

The man refused and instead handed the teen a metal broom handle, which Mohamed took and used to begin hitting the man, prosecutors say. Police fired as Mohamed approached the victim and appeared ready to strike him again, the investigation found.

The officers' actions may have saved the victim's life, Gill said, declining to talk about the man's injuries. Authorities previously said he didn't need medical attention.