Protests erupt over police shooting of Somali refugee in Utah
Cops say Absi Mohamed was beating another man, refused to drop weapon
Published: 9 hours ago
Abdi Mohamed, a 17-year-old former refugee from Somalia, was shot at least twice by police in Salt Lake City after he allegedly refused to drop the weapon he was using to beat another man.
Several hundred protesters took to the streets of Salt Lake City, Utah, on Monday, two days after police shot a 17-year-old Somali refugee who they say was one of two people beating a man with metal objects.
Abdi Mohamed was shot two to three times and is in a local hospital listed in critical condition. One local TV station reported he was in a coma.
Protesters carried signs with slogans that included “Stop killer cops” as they vented their rage against police for shooting Mohamed.
Black Lives Matter speakers from the NAACP and other groups urged minority residents to stand up to police and demand accountability.
Police said they responded to a violent crime in progress and were investigating whether it was handled properly. They said the Somali teen continued toward the man he had been beating when officers told him to stop and drop a weapon, Fox 13 Now reported.
The shooting occurred about 8 p.m. Saturday. Within minutes a crowd gathered and became hostile, according to a police press release, with some people throwing rocks or bottles at officers. The officers asked the crowd to leave the area so medical personnel could respond to the scene, but many in the crowd did not comply.
Police told Fox 13 in Salt Lake City that nearly 100 officers responded to the scene, and several streets and public transportation were shut down in the area. Police said four people were arrested for crimes related to civil disorder.
Watch Fox 13’s report on the shooting and ensuing riot:
Civil-rights groups are calling for a thorough investigation and for police to release body camera video of the incident, the News Herald reported.
Police told the News Herald Abdi Mohamed was shot twice in the torso when officers intervened as Mohamed and another person attacked a man with metal sticks.
Police have not released footage from body cameras worn by the officers, citing the ongoing investigation and the strong possibility the teenager will face charges.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Utah said Monday it hopes Abdi Mohamed and his family are treated "fairly and compassionately" as investigators sort through what happened Saturday night in downtown Salt Lake City, according to the News Herald.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations or CAIR called on police to release body camera footage in the name of "transparency and accountability."
The protest rally Monday night was reportedly organized by a group called Utah Against Police.
Teen resettled in U.S. by Catholic agency
Mohamed is a refugee from Somalia who was resettled in the United States by a Catholic agency in 2004, according to local media reports. He reportedly lived in West Valley City with his girlfriend and their son.
Aden Batar of Catholic Community Services in Salt Lake City told the News Herald that Abdi Mohamed's family fled Somalia and lived for an unknown amount of time at a United Nations refugee camp in Kenya. From there he was admitted to the United States through the U.S. State Department's refugee program, which has resettled more than 3 million foreign refugees in some 180 U.S. cities and towns since 1980.
More than 115,000 refugees have come to the U.S. from Somalia since the early 1990s, almost all of them Sunni Muslims. More than 30 have been confirmed by the FBI to have left the U.S. to join overseas terrorist organizations including the Islamic State in Syria and al-Shabab in Somalia. Dozens of others have been charged and/or convicted of providing material support to terror organizations.
The U.N. facilities in Kenya make up the largest refugee camp in the world, filled with more than 350,000 people from war-torn Somalia. The president of Kenya has in the past threatened to shut down the camps and send the Somalis back across the border to Somalia because refugees have been suspected of involvement in terrorist attacks inside Kenya, including the massacre of 148 Christians at a Kenyan university last year and a mall attack the year before.
Congress does nothing to slow flow of Somali refugees
But the U.S. continues to take in Somali refugees from the massive camp in Kenya and other camps. The Somalis arrive in the U.S. at a rate of 500 to 700 per month, according to the federal refugee database. The Catholic, Lutheran, evangelical, Jewish and secular resettlement agencies sign them up for a cornucopia of federal welfare benefits and they are placed on a fast track to U.S. citizenship. Full citizenship is obtainable within five years, and the government often pays for interpreters, English tutors and various other advocacy to help them through the process. If they don't pursue citizenship, they are given green cards and status as lawful permanent residents.
While there has been much debate on Capitol Hill about Syrian refugees coming to the U.S. and whether they can be adequately vetted, little has been said in Congress about the Somali refugee program, which has had one of the worst records for crime, terrorism and lack of assimilation.
Batar says he spoke with Mohamed's family after the Saturday night shooting about what happened. Batar, the agency's immigration and refugee resettlement director, said they hadn't seen the family much after they helped them through the initial settlement process more than a decade ago.
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