County wants more info after officer pulled gun on child

WOODS CROSS, Utah (AP) — A Utah county attorney is seeking more information as he determines if criminal charges are warranted against a white police officer who pulled his gun on a 10-year-old black child in a case that raised concerns about possible racial-profiling.

Davis County Attorney Troy Rawlings declined to provide details about the information he is seeking, the Deseret News reports .

The Department of Public Safety has said it had submitted a case to Rawlings’ office for screening.

The officer’s actions drew protests after Jerri Hrubes, the mother of the child, said the officer pulled his gun June 6 while the boy was playing on his grandmother’s front lawn.

Hrubes believes the incident was racially motivated. She said her son had no toys or objects in his hands.

The officer told him to put his hands in the air, get on the ground and not to ask questions. After Hrubes confronted the officer, he got in his car and left, she said.

Jeanetta Williams, president of NAACP Tri-State Conference for Idaho, Nevada and Utah, was among those who called for an independent investigation of the incident.

Woods Cross Police Chief Chad Soffe said the officer was part of a group chasing suspects after authorities received reports of a shooting and were told the suspects were black, Hispanic or Polynesian.

Soffe rejected requests to fire the officer.

He initially asked Rawlings’ office to review the incident, but the county attorney said he doesn’t do such reviews, which led Woods Cross to ask the Utah Department of Public Safety to review the incident.

Attorney Heather White said she did not know what types of additional information the county attorney needed.
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Information from: KSL-TV, http://www.ksl.com/