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While national attention is now focusing on whether two Saratoga Springs police officers shot and killed a young black man because of his race, the various sides sparred Monday over which version of what happened is supported by emerging evidence.

Randall Edwards, attorney for the family of Darrien Hunt, said more witnesses came forward to support the family's version that the 22-year-old was trying to flee police Wednesday when he was shot in the back. He said no witnesses — nor independent autopsy findings — support police versions that he was lunging at officers with a sword.

Meanwhile, Tim Taylor, chief deputy Utah County attorney, disputed Hunt family assertions that the sword was a decorator piece that is more of a toy and not a weapon. He said the 2- to 3-foot blade was steel and had a point and "was not a toy."

Also, Taylor said investigators have obtained video surveillance tapes from businesses near where the shooting occurred but have not yet reviewed them. He also said investigators have not yet interviewed at length the two officers involved in the shooting but expect to do that later this week.

At the same time, Saratoga Springs police apologized for a Facebook post that criticized the news media for reporting "innuendo, opinion and rumor as fact" in the case and removed the post. Police Chief Andrew Burton said it resulted from "much frustration" over the department's inability to respond while others investigate the shooting.

All that comes as media from the Los Angeles Times to the Huffington Post to MSNBC, CNN, The Guardian, The Daily Mail and others have been running stories about Hunt family assertions that the young man was shot because he is half-black, and blacks are treated differently. They say he posed no threat as he danced to music with the sword while walking.

The attention comes amid ongoing protests in Ferguson, Mo., over police shooting Michael Brown, a young, unarmed black man there. Also, ironically, it comes as former Saratoga Springs Mayor Mia Love is favored in a race to become the first black Republican woman elected to Congress.

Love said Monday that she did not know Hunt or his family, and did not want to comment on his death or claims that race played a part in the shooting.

"I don't want to be mentioned in anything," said Love. "I think it should just go through the process it is supposed to go through."

Family attorney Edwards said that during a candlelight vigil for Hunt on Sunday night, he and others made appeals for anyone who might have seen something to come forward. He said more people did.

All of the new information supports earlier witness statements that Hunt was trying to flee from police, Edwards said, and none report having seen Hunt threatening or lunging at officers.

Edwards said preliminary findings by a pathologist who performed an independent autopsy for the family found that Hunt was hit by six shots, and none appear to have come from the front — which might be expected if police were defending against an attack.

He said the shot that apparently killed Hunt was in the middle of the back, and did not exit but damaged internal organs.

Hunt was shot twice in the leg, he said, once from the rear and once from the side. He was also shot in the shoulder and elbow, also both from the rear, the attorney said. Finally, he was shot in the hand, and Edwards noted it is difficult to know whether that came from the front or back as the hand may have been moving.

"What that says to me, as a matter of common sense, is that the bullet wounds are more consistent with witness statements that indicate he was running from police and they were shooting at him as he was running," Edwards said.

He added that as he explored the shooting scene, he found that Hunt died "100 to 150 yards" from where he initially was confronted by police. "So at that point, you have to ask what was going on. Only three people can answer that definitively, and one of them is dead."

Taylor said the county attorney's office — overseeing the investigation by an interagency team — has not yet had a lengthy interview with the officers beyond what they told other police who responded initially.

He said it is normal procedure to let officers involved in a shooting withdraw from the scene and then interview them at length later. He said those interviews are scheduled for later this week.

Investigators have obtained video surveillance tapes from multiple businesses near the site, Taylor said. "We have yet to review that to see if there is anything," he said. "We will take a look at that and it will be part of our investigation."

Edwards said the family has not decided whether to file suit because evidence is still being gathered and is inconclusive so far, and he hopes the official investigation will be thorough and fair.

He said it is too early to tell conclusively what role race may have played in the shooting. "We don't know what was going on in the minds of police. … But it [race] is an issue we will continue to explore."

Edwards added, "Obviously, Saratoga Springs is not Ferguson, Mo. It is a very homogeneous community in which the vast majority of people are all of one race, all of one religion and generally all of one social class. But anytime you end with a dead black kid and a couple of white police who shot him to death, the question rises as to whether race was an issue."

Tribune reporter Matt Canham contributed to this story.