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| Darrien Hunt's family and friends remember 'a boy in a man's body' | Darrien Hunt's family and friends remember 'a boy in a man's body' |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| A verbal slip-up by his aunt seems to sum up how friends and relatives viewed Darrien Hunt before he was shot dead by police in Utah last week. “He was just like a normal teenager,” Cindy Moss said of her nephew, who was 22. | A verbal slip-up by his aunt seems to sum up how friends and relatives viewed Darrien Hunt before he was shot dead by police in Utah last week. “He was just like a normal teenager,” Cindy Moss said of her nephew, who was 22. |
| As they try to understand how Hunt came to be killed after walking around a strip mall in Saratoga Springs with a decorative samurai-style sword, people who knew him are seeking explanations in a youthfulness that they say belied even his relatively tender age.To his mother, Susan, he was “a boy in a man’s body”. Cristina Caffiero Kurzmann, a family friend, agreed. “He was a child at heart,” she said. “He may have been 22, but at heart he was 15. He was the nicest kid, and would never have hurt anyone.” | As they try to understand how Hunt came to be killed after walking around a strip mall in Saratoga Springs with a decorative samurai-style sword, people who knew him are seeking explanations in a youthfulness that they say belied even his relatively tender age.To his mother, Susan, he was “a boy in a man’s body”. Cristina Caffiero Kurzmann, a family friend, agreed. “He was a child at heart,” she said. “He may have been 22, but at heart he was 15. He was the nicest kid, and would never have hurt anyone.” |
| Police and prosecutors allege, however, that on Wednesday, Hunt “brandished the sword and lunged toward the officers” responding to a 911 call from a nearby gas station that reported he was acting suspiciously. One or both of the officers shot at him, and he fled up to 100 yards north. He then died outside a restaurant, having been shot repeatedly.Randall Edwards, an attorney for Hunt’s family, has said that a private autopsy shows that he was shot six times from behind. The deadly bullet in his back had no exit wound, said Edwards. County authorities, who have altered their account of how Hunt was killed since their first statement about the shooting on Saturday, are investigating. | |
| Hunt’s family and Edwards are meanwhile looking into several possible explanations for Hunt’s actions in the minutes before his altercation with the two officers, who have not been identified by the Saratoga Springs police department, and are both on paid leave. | Hunt’s family and Edwards are meanwhile looking into several possible explanations for Hunt’s actions in the minutes before his altercation with the two officers, who have not been identified by the Saratoga Springs police department, and are both on paid leave. |
| One is that Hunt was playing out some kind of public performance. “From what I’ve heard from witnesses that have talked to us, he wasn’t bothering anyone,” said Moss. “He had his earbuds in, and was kind of doing spins and stuff, like pretending he’s a samurai, without even being near a person. Just in his own little world, doing his own thing.” | One is that Hunt was playing out some kind of public performance. “From what I’ve heard from witnesses that have talked to us, he wasn’t bothering anyone,” said Moss. “He had his earbuds in, and was kind of doing spins and stuff, like pretending he’s a samurai, without even being near a person. Just in his own little world, doing his own thing.” |
| Attention has also been drawn online to Hunt’s remarkable resemblance as he walked around on the morning of his death to Mugen, a swordsman character in the short-lived Japanese anime series Samurai Champloo. | Attention has also been drawn online to Hunt’s remarkable resemblance as he walked around on the morning of his death to Mugen, a swordsman character in the short-lived Japanese anime series Samurai Champloo. |
| Edwards volunteered without prompt a possible link with the Comic Con convention that had taken place in Salt Lake City the previous weekend. “We had lines and lines of people dressing up like Princess Leia and Starship Troopers and anime characters and that kind of thing,” he said. “I don’t know if that factored into it at all.” | |
| His mother has suggested alternatively that Darrien may have been seeking a job, and could even have been seeking to attract a crowd and impress potential employers by carrying the sword, a souvenir that the family says was purchased at an “oriental gift shop” by Darrien’s younger brother. | His mother has suggested alternatively that Darrien may have been seeking a job, and could even have been seeking to attract a crowd and impress potential employers by carrying the sword, a souvenir that the family says was purchased at an “oriental gift shop” by Darrien’s younger brother. |
| Acknowledging that the theory “might sound kind of silly”, Moss stressed nonetheless that “Susan had kind of been on his case to get a job. He had quit his last job. He dressed up in a dress shirt and pants, and then Susan ran off to work.” | Acknowledging that the theory “might sound kind of silly”, Moss stressed nonetheless that “Susan had kind of been on his case to get a job. He had quit his last job. He dressed up in a dress shirt and pants, and then Susan ran off to work.” |
| The Hunt family insists that the sword, which Hunt had been carrying in a plastic sheath, had a “rounded edge” to its two-to-three-foot blade, and ultimately was not dangerous. However “it was not a toy”, said Tim Taylor, the chief deputy attorney for Utah County. “It is a steel-type sword with a sharpened point and what looks like a sharpened edge,” he said. | |
| Edwards, the family attorney, stressed that under Utah’s liberal weapons laws, Hunt, who was not a felon nor adjudged mentally ill, was legally entitled to carry a sword in public. Still, opinions differ on why he might not have considered that unsheathing and brandishing it could get him into trouble. Moss said that a witness had told her that as Hunt walked around the strip mall, someone walked out of the gas station – which sits opposite a drive-through bank where Hunt would soon be confronted by police – and told him: “Some people are feeling nervous, would you mind leaving?” | Edwards, the family attorney, stressed that under Utah’s liberal weapons laws, Hunt, who was not a felon nor adjudged mentally ill, was legally entitled to carry a sword in public. Still, opinions differ on why he might not have considered that unsheathing and brandishing it could get him into trouble. Moss said that a witness had told her that as Hunt walked around the strip mall, someone walked out of the gas station – which sits opposite a drive-through bank where Hunt would soon be confronted by police – and told him: “Some people are feeling nervous, would you mind leaving?” |
| Kayden Mitchell, an 18-year-old friend, said that some people assumed Hunt was “kind of a little mentally slow, a little slower”. Moss rejected this. “Not at all,” she said. “He was very bright, a bright young man.” She added that her nephew was “kind of shy but giving and loving”, and idealistic about world events. He graduated from Battlefield High School in Haymarket, Virginia, in 2010. An obituary published by his family said: “He had a strong desire to serve his country in the Marine Corp and unfortunately never got that chance.” | |
| Hunt lived at his mother’s house in Saratoga Springs, about 35 miles south of Salt Lake City, with his younger brother Kerahn, who is 20, and two younger sisters Taryn and Aliya, who are in their teens. In a city with a population that is 93% white and only 0.5% black, Hunt, who was brown-skinned and had recently been sporting an Afro hairstyle, stood out. | Hunt lived at his mother’s house in Saratoga Springs, about 35 miles south of Salt Lake City, with his younger brother Kerahn, who is 20, and two younger sisters Taryn and Aliya, who are in their teens. In a city with a population that is 93% white and only 0.5% black, Hunt, who was brown-skinned and had recently been sporting an Afro hairstyle, stood out. |
| The family moved to Utah in 2011 after domestic troubles flared in Virginia. Susan, Hunt’s mother, told reporters last weekend that she had fled an abusive relationship. Hunt suffered a “rough childhood”, said Moss, because the same person was “kind of abusive” to him. | |
| So after moving west, Darrien began to indulge in some of the things he had missed out on as a teenager the first time around. “He was trying to catch up,” said Moss. “He could have lost a little bit of time with some of the stuff that went on.” | So after moving west, Darrien began to indulge in some of the things he had missed out on as a teenager the first time around. “He was trying to catch up,” said Moss. “He could have lost a little bit of time with some of the stuff that went on.” |
| He attended boy scout camp only this year with boys who were several years younger than him, according to relatives and friends. “He was fun to hang out with because he hadn’t done any of those things,” said one. “He wanted to try it all, he wanted to learn, he wanted to have experiences that he hadn’t had.” | He attended boy scout camp only this year with boys who were several years younger than him, according to relatives and friends. “He was fun to hang out with because he hadn’t done any of those things,” said one. “He wanted to try it all, he wanted to learn, he wanted to have experiences that he hadn’t had.” |
| The family only had one car, so it was typical for Hunt to walk about on his own after his mother, 51, had left for her job as an administrative and procurement specialist for an agricultural company. He would often slip in his earbuds and listen to hip-hop. His favourite rapper was Tech N9ne, the stage name of Aaron Dontez Yates of St Louis, Missouri. “My brother considered Tech N9ne his God,” his sister Aliya said in a Facebook post. Getting to meet his hero had been a “dream come true for him”, she added. | |
| Mitchell, the 18-year-old friend, shared Hunt’s music tastes. He recalled laid-back discussions about their favourite artists. “He went out of his way to come and talk to me at the birthday party where we met,” said Mitchell. “He introduced himself, and was just a super-cool guy.” | Mitchell, the 18-year-old friend, shared Hunt’s music tastes. He recalled laid-back discussions about their favourite artists. “He went out of his way to come and talk to me at the birthday party where we met,” said Mitchell. “He introduced himself, and was just a super-cool guy.” |
| Yet Hunt appears to have suffered at least two stressful setbacks this year. First, in January, he was arrested after a drunken fight at his house with two friends of one of his sister’s, who “jumped him”, said Moss. She said that despite being injured himself, Hunt, as the only participant of adult age, was initially charged with child abuse, assault and intoxication. | |
| Edwards, the family attorney, said that Hunt entered a guilty plea that was being held by Utah’s courts system “in abeyance”, which meant it would be dismissed and disappear from his record if he got into no further trouble for a year. “His mugshot shows that he was pretty beat up,” said Edwards. “He hadn’t had any problems since.” | |
| His family dismissed suggestions that he was perhaps depressed or seriously unhappy. “He had good days and bad days,” said Moss. | His family dismissed suggestions that he was perhaps depressed or seriously unhappy. “He had good days and bad days,” said Moss. |
| But he had hinted at troubled thoughts in a series of cryptic, one-line posts to his Facebook page over several months. “Just still feel like these people are out to get me type of paranoid,” he posted in June. “What people? We all love you,” replied his aunt. “Just dealing with memories,” Hunt said in response. | |
| He also appeared to have encountered some romantic anguish. “I think he was having some girl problems,” said Mitchell. “He texted me. He was saying once he got everything sorted with this girl, we would hang out.” | He also appeared to have encountered some romantic anguish. “I think he was having some girl problems,” said Mitchell. “He texted me. He was saying once he got everything sorted with this girl, we would hang out.” |
| “You know I would give you my everything,” he said in one Facebook post in August. “I’m fine with being alone,” he added on Monday. Late on Tuesday night, he posted again. “I wanted to share my everything with her,” he said. About 10 and a half hours later, someone called 911. |
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