Outcry over body cam video

CITY» Police SALT LAKE brutality activists in Utah are livid after a prosecutor this week determined police were justified in a fatal shooting of a black man in August. The shooting was captured on body camera video, which was released this week.

While one video appears to show the victim, Patrick Harmon, 50, shot from behind as he ran from police, a slowed-down version shows he pivoted toward officers with a knife, Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill said Friday.

Officer Clinton Fox told investigators Harmon threatened to stab him before he fired the fatal shots. Body camera video shows Fox shot Harmon at close range after Fox yells, “I’ll ... shoot you.”

Lex Scott, an organizer with Black Lives Matter in Utah, said the community is angry over the footage and wants the district attorney to resign. The Harmon family, which lives in Colorado and St. Louis, is shellshocked, Scott said.

“You can’t watch that video and not realize it is a clear case of murder,” Scott said. “It is one of the clearest cases of murder we’ve ever seen.”

African-Americans make up about 2 percent of the population in Utah yet are over-represented in the criminal justice system, Scott said.

About 50 protesters rallied in front of Salt Lake City police building last weekend, including members of Harmon’s family, demanding police release the footage. They did that this week after Gill’s ruling.

Harmon was shot and killed Aug. 13, after an officer saw him ride his bicycle across all six lanes of traffic and a median on a downtown Salt Lake City street.

He was stopped because he didn’t have a required red rear tail light on his bicycle, according to the district attorney’s report.