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Herbert Weighs In On SLC Police Shooting

smcslc.org
Salt Lake City.

Gov. Gary Herbert has responded to the Saturday shooting of Abdullahi Omar Mohammed by two Salt Lake City police officers. Police say the 17-year-old failed to comply with an order to put down a weapon after officers responded to an altercation.

The shooting was quickly followed by a confrontation between police and protesters that same night. Herbert said that he awaits more details surrounding the shooting.

“It’s a local police issue. We had an opportunity to be there to help with back-up. We have a special unit designed to help with those kinds of things and to make sure we don’t get unruly mobs and the associate problems that happen with that,” Herbert said. “I think there is warranted an investigation to find out exactly what the cause is, whether the police acted appropriately. I will wait for that investigation before I pass judgment on anybody. We’ll assist as a state any way that we can.”

There is currently an ongoing investigation into the incident by the Unified Police Department. Herbert said that citizens can still feel safe in Utah.

“I think Utah’s got a great track record. We have our crime rate in Utah is about 40 percent lower than the national average. In the intermountain region, it’s 43 percent lower. And that’s on violent crime,” he said. “If you’re going to come to a state that you’re going to feel safe, Utah’s going to be at the top of the list. Again, we have every crime that happens anywhere in the country here in Utah, we just don’t have it in the abundance that we find other places.”

Mohammed remains hospitalized while recovering from injuries.