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A mother wants an independent investigation Friday after learning that a Utah police officer had pointed a gun at her 10-year-old son's head as part of what she's calling a racist incident. Jerri Hrubes said at a press conference that she had seen a white Woods Cross officer shoot his gun at his son, DJ Hrubes, who was black while he was playing on the lawn of his grandmother Thursday.
She said that her son had no toys or objects in his hand. The agent told DJ to get his hands up and down, she said. When DJ asked the agent he had done something wrong, she told the agent not to ask any questions to DJ.
Hrubes said that she ran out of the house and shouted at the agent: "What are you doing? It's a child of 10 years."
She said that the officer did not answer and got in his car and left.
Hrubes said that she immediately called the dispatch to complain about the officer's actions. The officer returned home later in the day. She said that he apologized and that DJ took him in his arms and told him that everything was fine. She stated that her son did not have "nasty bones in his body", that he was mentally retarded and that he had problems with his eyesight.
She tore up by telling the meeting and said that she was grateful to have taught DJ to grow to heed the officers' orders.
"I support all the police, I can see them," Hrubes said. "But, I'm not in favor of putting a 10-year-old man under the threat of a revolver without explanation. … Does he seem to have 30 years old? Does he look to be 18? No. "
She said that she did not necessarily want the officer to be fired, but that she wanted an external review and that she had filed a formal complaint. She appeared alongside lawyer Karra Porter at the press conference, but said she was not considering any legal action at the moment.
Hrubes, a native of Montana, said she was visiting her mother in the city where she grew up: West Bountiful, a suburb of Salt Lake City. She said the incident had changed what she felt in Utah, a state in which African Americans make up only 1.4% of the population, according to US Census figures.
"As a white mother to a black son, I no longer feel safe in West Bountiful," said Hrubes. "It changed after yesterday, I do not think he's safe, he did not leave my sight, it does not look like that anymore."
Lex Scott, founder of Black Lives Matter in Utah, said his organization was demanding the dismissal of the police officer, failing which he would protest in front of the police agency's offices. She added that the group was also considering filing a complaint with the FBI's Civil Rights Division.
"Carrying a revolver on the head of a 10-year-old child will traumatize this kid all his life," Scott said. "The only excuse we will accept, is if this officer is fired."
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