Police initially encountered Mohn on Jan. 11 after an armed safety guard for Marathon Petroleum’s Salt Lake Metropolis refinery advised an officer she was “strolling in circles carrying a chunk of rebar within the intersection of 400 West 900 North,” in accordance a police information launch.
The officer, whose identification hasn’t been launched, was working a secondary employment shift for Marathon Petroleum.
“The SLCPD officer realized from safety that Ms. Mohn tried getting right into a safe space and accessed the truck exit gate. A truck driver stopped Ms. Mohn who then ran off property and again into the intersection,” police officers stated within the information launch. “At roughly 3:30 a.m., the SLCPD officer contacted Ms. Mohn and noticed she had two items of rebar in her hand.
“The officer ordered Ms. Mohn to drop the rebar and she or he complied.”
He additionally had her sit on the bottom, police stated. Physique digital camera video, which captured the primary 30 seconds of video with out audio, continued with Mohn screaming for assistance on the bottom.
The footage confirmed an officer ask Mohn her title and threaten to take her to jail if she did not inform him. She remained silent till asking for proof the individuals she was speaking to have been cops.
“We’re the police,” one officer stated. “You see the purple and blues?”
Mohn responded with screams that they have been going to kill her. When she stood up, an officer demanded she “sit down” and “keep down.”
At one level, she requested for water and an officer responded that they might give her water if she advised them her title.
“Oh, that’s simply exploitation,” Mohn stated.
It’s unclear what precipitated the scenario to escalate, however when an officer made good on a risk to chop Mohn’s backpack if she didn’t inform them her title, officers moved Mohn to her again, later placing her on her abdomen. They advised her to cease kicking and mocked her.
“Say no to medication, you’d have much less issues,” one officer stated.
The video doesn’t seize the primary moments of the police encounter with Mohn.
“The precise second in time when the primary officer encountered Ms. Mohn is unknown right now as a result of the primary officer didn’t have a body-worn digital camera,” police officers stated in a follow-up information launch.
However someday after that, officers put Mohn in handcuffs and ankle restraints and she or he “grew to become unresponsive,” police stated.
Officers have been seen within the physique digital camera footage making an attempt to help Mohn. She was later taken by ambulance to Salt Lake Regional Hospital in essential situation. She died on Jan. 30 after being moved to an intensive care unit.
“Upon studying of Ms. Mohn’s dying, from the medical expert’s workplace, the Salt Lake Metropolis Police Division consulted with the Salt Lake County District Legal professional’s Workplace,” police officers stated. “The Salt Lake County District Legal professional’s Workplace suggested the Salt Lake Metropolis Police Division that the incident didn’t qualify as an officer-involved-critical-incident at the moment. All events awaited the medical expert’s findings.”
Police Chief Mike Brown expressed the division’s condolences to the Mohn household within the information launch, which included the physique digital camera footage. “Guaranteeing we’ve a complete investigation into this matter is essential,” Brown stated. “This case includes many advanced components. I stay up for the complete report of the officer-involved-critical-incident and our division’s inside affairs investigation.”
Within the earlier assertion, Brown didn’t point out a priority for the sufferer, just for the officers.
“Cops make extremely essential and troublesome choices at lightning velocity and underneath unimaginable stress and volatility. These choices are closely scrutinized,” he stated. “Our officers acted appropriately, rapidly and professionally to save lots of Ms. Mohn’s life. We welcome and respect the officer-involved-critical-incident protocol. We’ve got confidence this might be a good and considered course of guided by the rule of legislation and grounded in proof.”
Chris Burbank, a former Salt Lake Metropolis police chief, advised Fox 13 Information that an post-mortem report launched on July 28 confirmed partially that Mohn’s dying was a murder brought on by police. “That interplay precipitated the dying of that lady,” Burbank stated.
Salt Lake Metropolis police stated in its assessment of the medical expert’s findings that Mohn died of an “anoxic mind harm” as a consequence of “cardiac arrest” from “possible methamphetamine intoxication within the setting of an altercation involving bodily restraint.”
Chief Medical Examiner Erik Christensen advised The Salt Lake Tribune why it took greater than six months to launch the report. He stated establishing a reason for dying can generally be a extra concerned course of together with assessment of “investigative data obtained,” equivalent to police stories and movies.
“The analysis of this data is a fancy endeavor which requires time and a focus,” Christensen emailed The Salt Lake Tribune. “The extra advanced the case, the longer the investigation probably takes. Our customary for completion is an acknowledgement that not all instances will be accomplished inside a two-month timeframe and the investigation would require greater than the standard quantity of labor and follow-up.”
Dr. Alon Steinberg, a heart specialist who chairs the division of cardiology at Group Memorial Hospital in Ventura, California, advised The Salt Lake Tribune the susceptible place Mohn was positioned in will be deadly, blocking air flow and circulation.
“When you could have a cardiac arrest — that means the center’s not pumping any blood movement to the entire physique — however essentially the most susceptible space is the mind,” Steinberg stated. “So if the mind doesn’t get oxygen for 4 or 5 minutes, it may very well be fairly catastrophic.”
He added: “It seems like there was a chronic time frame the place she was not getting sufficient circulation to her mind and she or he suffered mind dying, and she or he might have suffered different issues.”
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