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Saratoga Springs • Darrien Hunt was "just walking" when he was spotted by the 911 caller who reported seeing the 22-year-old man with a Samurai-style sword minutes before officers fatally shot Hunt at a Saratoga Springs shopping center, according to a dispatch recording released Thursday.
However, the caller was driving to work and did not see what transpired between Hunt and the officers immediately before Hunt was shot in what has become another controversy in a nationwide discussion of race and police tactics.
In a recording released Thursday by Utah Valley Dispatch, the caller can be heard reporting that a man was on Redwood Road "walking towards kinda the Walmart area" about 9:30 a.m. Sept. 10.
The caller calmly describes the man as "darker-skinned," with a red shirt and an Afro hairstyle pulled back in a bun.
"But he was carrying a samurai sword," the caller reports.
Hunt's family said Thursday that the 911 call reinforces what they have believed all along.
"There was no reason to overreact," said Hunt's aunt, Cindy Moss.
"He was just casually walking around," Moss said of Hunt. "He had his earbuds in listening to music. I don't think there was any reason to overreact ... He wasn't bothering anyone."
Moss reiterated that Hunt's sword, she called it a katana, was a toy.
It was metal, but had a rounded blade that would not cut, she said, adding: "It was soft as a butter knife."
Hunt's family has said Hunt that day was cosplaying — costumed role playing.
They pointed to similarities between his apparel that day and that of the character Mugen from the popular anime series Samurai Champloo. Hunt's sketchbooks of Manga-style drawings were displayed at his funeral.
Saratoga Springs Cpl. Matthew Schauerhamer and Officer Nicholas Judson confronted Hunt outside a nearby Panda Express and shot him.
Police have said Hunt lunged at them with the sword.
But Hunt's family has said eyewitnesses claim Hunt was walking away from police when they fired, and that an independent autopsy showed he was shot in the back.
The shooting of Hunt, who is black, received national media attention amid ongoing controversy over the police shootings of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., and other black civilians elsewhere.
The Utah County Attorney's Office is investigating the shooting.
Randall Edwards, an attorney for Hunt's family, has said he had asked federal authorities to also investigate.