“We consider this a victory for open government and transparency."

View a PDF of this release here >>

For immediate release:
January 23, 2017    

CONTACT:  
David Reymann, ACLU of Utah Cooperating Attorney, (801) 257-7939, dreymann@parrbrown.com
Leah Farrell, ACLU of Utah Staff Attorney, (801) 871-0335, lfarrell@acluutah.org

Footage of Abdi Mohamed Shooting Finally Released

SALT LAKE CITY, UT — The Salt Lake District Attorney’s Office today released police body
camera footage of the February 2016 shooting of Abdi Mohammed, who was 17 at the time. The
release of the footage, for which the ACLU of Utah has been fighting since May 2016, comes less
than two weeks after the District Attorney’s Office vowed to appeal a unanimous ruling from the
State Records Committee that the body camera footage, as well as other media related to the
shooting, be released to the public.

“While we are pleased that this footage is finally available for the public to review, it must be
noted that the ACLU fought this fight for transparency across the board, not just in this case,”
commented ACLU of Utah cooperating attorney David Reymann of Parr Brown Gee & Loveless.
“We sincerely hope that the next time a high-profile incident like this occurs, and community
members demand accountability and transparency, Salt Lake County will not force people to
hire lawyers to access records that should be immediately presumed and made public.”

Abdi Mohamed, who relocated to Utah from Somalia with his family, was shot multiple times by
Salt Lake City police officers on February 27, 2016, in the downtown Rio Grande neighborhood.
He was in a coma for several weeks and, nearly a year later, is still confined to a wheelchair due
to his injuries.

“We consider this a victory for open government and transparency. The public can finally view
for themselves controversial footage that has been repeatedly described to them by government
officials, and was recorded by body cameras paid for by their tax dollars,” said Brittney
Nystrom, Executive Director of the ACLU of Utah. “We maintain that the footage should have
been released many months ago, because these are clearly public records; however, we are
glad that transparency ultimately triumphed in this case.”

###

Save