Special to the AmNews
On the one-year anniversary of Darrien Hunt’s police killing, several dozen family members, friends and supporters gathered at the Panda Express in Saratoga Springs, Utah, where he was shot, to commemorate his life and call for police accountability. Hunt was killed in the restaurant’s parking lot Sept. 10, 2014, after police responded to a call of a “suspicious” man walking around carrying a “samurai-type sword.”
His mother, Susan Hunt, announced that she had declined a $900,000 civil settlement and vowed that she won’t accept a deal that doesn’t exonerate him of wrongdoing in the encounter. She also said the deal contained an unacceptable provision that bars her from discussing the case publicly.
“To me it was a gag order [saying], ‘Here’s hush money. Don’t ever say Darrien’s name again,’” she contends. “I hope there will be a legacy instead of a hush order.”
Observers say that Hunt ran off when cops arrived, and police claim that he lunged at them with a sword. Witnesses say Hunt wasn’t attacking, but rather he was running away. A state autopsy later confirmed that he was shot in the back.
Hunt’s relatives say he was “cosplaying,” or costumed role-playing, “as a cartoon character and carrying a 3-foot souvenir katana sword that was not a weapon, but a costume accessory with a rounded blade.”
Susan Hunt, who is Caucasian, thinks her son was shot because he was Black and said that accepting the offer would not be satisfactory.
“That’s not going to clear his name,” she stated. “They don’t have to give me a dime … and I could not, in good conscience, agree to that. Clear my son’s name … let them know that he did not do anything, that he did not commit a crime.”
Darrien’s aunt Cindy Moss agrees. “We didn’t care about the money amount … we cared that they were going to shut us up,” she said.
In January, the Hunt family filed a $2 million civil rights lawsuit against Saratoga Springs and the two cops, Cpl. Matthew Schauerhamer and Nicholas Judson, who shot Hunt. The lawsuit calls the cops’ use of deadly force excessive and unlawful. The family also feels that Hunts’ civil rights were violated.
“It was nothing to do with [money], it has to do with clearing his name, and with truth and justice,” Moss added.
Hunt stated in disbelief, “I feel sadly that the majority of [Saratoga Springs residents] would prefer that I just shut up and go away … but the truth is Darrien didn’t swing the sword at the officers.”
Prosecutors say that police were justified in shooting Hunt “because they believed he was a threat to shoppers at a nearby store.”
An attorney for the city declined to comment on the case.
“The bad things that we see as a family is they’re [cops] allowed to make any decision and not be held accountable,” Moss complained. She also said the Utah County Attorney’s Office investigation into the shooting was “characterized by secrets kept and lies told that cloud the reality of what actually occurred.”
Moss stated that her nephew had previous encounters with Schauerhamer.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office and the FBI opened an investigation into the shooting earlier this year, which is still ongoing.
The family says they believe a federal review of the shooting will bring justice for Darrien Hunt and announced that the case is now being taken by the Johnnie Cochran Law Firm.
No court dates have been set.