Refugee shot by Salt Lake City police fled violence, squalor in search of a ‘better life


Posted on June 1, 2016 by creeping


You may have heard rumblings about a police shooting
in Salt Lake City earlier this year. What you probably
didn’t hear is that the person shot was a Somali
Muslim refugee who was, with another Muslim,
beating another man with metal sticks.

Source: Refugee shot by Salt Lake City police fled violence, squalor in search of a ‘better life’ | The Salt Lake Tribune h/t Uncensored

Mohamed’s life took a detour, Aden said, after the accident left his grandfather, who was a father figure, unable to remember his grandchildren.Mohamed started getting in trouble with police at age 12, according to court records. He spent time in juvenile detention centers for theft, trespass and assault, most recently in September.None of that prepared his family for the news that he had been shot by police.Police say Mohamed and a second person were beating a man with metal sticks when officers intervened Feb. 27. The officers fired after Mohamed moved toward the beaten man instead of immediately obeying a command to drop the stick, police said.

Somali refugee Abdullahi Mohamed — critically wounded in a high-profile police shooting in Salt Lake City last month — fled to the U.S. from a refugee camp, where food was scarce, scorpions scurried everywhere and a toilet was a hole in the ground.

The 17-year-old’s family settled in Utah, hoping for a better life.

But things took a turn and he began to get in trouble with police, cousin Muslima Aden said, after his beloved grandfather suffered a brain injury in a car accident.
…
Mohamed’s life took a detour, Aden said, after the accident left his grandfather, who was a father figure, unable to remember his grandchildren.

Mohamed started getting in trouble with police at age 12, according to court records. He spent time in juvenile detention centers for theft, trespass and assault, most recently in September.

None of that prepared his family for the news that he had been shot by police.

Police say Mohamed and a second person were beating a man with metal sticks when officers intervened Feb. 27. The officers fired after Mohamed moved toward the beaten man instead of immediately obeying a command to drop the stick, police said.

The cousin also said, “I am Muslim, and I know what we’re practicing. It’s peace.”

Utah: Muslim refugee shot by police after refusing to stop beating man with metal bar