Editor’s note • The following story was reported by The Utah Investigative Journalism Project in partnership with The Salt Lake Tribune.
Kamal Bewar insists the campfire was out.
But when he, his friends and their children returned to their site at Storm Mountain Picnic Area last summer, they found a note accusing them of having left it burning. They had to leave, the camp hosts had written.
Bewar told the hosts, a husband and wife, they would go — but they wanted a refund of the fee they paid for their spot in Big Cottonwood Canyon. The husband decided to call 911.
The responding officer would end up handcuffing Bewar, taking him to the ground and forcing him to stay there on his stomach until backup arrived. The officer’s unnecessary use of force, Bewar charges, left him, his distressed children and friends feeling disturbed and unsafe.
“I still can’t sleep,” Bewar said. “It’s been five months. I still — honestly, the image, I can’t get it out.” His 13-year-old son echoes: “for a week straight at school, in basketball, at home — the only image in my head was seeing my dad getting thrown on the floor. It was just shocking to me at that moment and traumatizing for me after.”
Bewar was released and no charges were filed, but he’s frustrated that his accusation of excessive force was rejected by the Unified Police Department.
He also asserts the hosts discriminated against his group in calling 911 and escalating their September encounter to police, which the couple did twice last summer, police records show — both times, about men from Iraq.
The first call was about Sattar Al Hamashi — another father who visited the picnic area with his children in July. The second call was about Bewar, interim director of Salt Lake Community College’s STEM Learning Resource Center, who is a leader in Utah’s Kurdish community and also originally from Iraq.
The Forest Service did not respond to questions from The Utah Investigative Journalism Project, including whether there had been other complaints related to the host couple at the picnic area or how often camp hosts generally call police.
The agency also declined to comment on whether it made any changes in directions or training to hosts about enforcing rules, after receiving complaints from Bewar and Hamashi.
“The Forest Service is committed to promoting equity, diversity, and inclusiveness,” a spokesperson said in a brief March email. Referring to Bewar’s allegations, the statement continued: “We are working to learn more about the situation and do not have further comment at this time.”
Police records suggest the host couple is from out of state, and The Utah Investigative Journalism Project (UIJP) was unable to reach them for comment.
‘I’ve got an issue’
(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Site number 6 is next to Big Cottonwood Creek at Storm Mountain Picnic Area. Kamal Bewar, his children and friends had reserved the site last September but were asked to leave by camp hosts who accused them of leaving a fire burning and then called police. An officer ended up taking Bewar to the ground and detained him until backup arrived, which Bewar contends was an excessive use of force that traumatized the group.
The picnic area, in the Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest, is managed by volunteer camp hosts with the U.S. Forest Service who are responsible for welcoming visitors and sharing information about rules and regulations.
The Forest Service’s Campground Host Manual tells hosts not to ignore rule violations but to communicate rules and offer reminders when they witness violations, or to leave a written note if the site’s occupants aren’t present.
Bewar said he and his friends settled in at their picnic site on Sept. 10, then went to another part of Big Cottonwood Canyon with their children, ages 9 to 13. When they returned to their site, they found the note from the hosts, who approached them soon after demanding they leave. The men, who had started to cook lunch, eventually asked for a refund.
The manual for hosts asks them to “back off and assess the level of assistance required” if a visitor continues to violate rules, or “if the behavior escalates even after you inform them of the rules. If it is not an emergency,” it continues, “contact your host supervisor; if you are unable to reach them and if the situation warrants it, contact dispatch and request assistance.”
The couple called 911 around 3:30 p.m., according to police records.
“I’ve got an issue with a group of people up here,” the husband said in the recorded call. “Left a fire burning and everything else and a log hanging out of the fire pit, so we came up and put the fire pit out and stuff. And they’re back here now. I told them they needed to leave. They’re not responding to that.”
Unified Police Officer Dave Wilson was wrapping up his shift when the call came in. He offered to handle it on his way home since no other officers were available, police records show. He could not be reached for comment.
Wilson found the hosts and together the three drove to Bewar’s site, according to a police report.
‘Tension on scene’
(Courtesy of Kamal Bewar) Unified Police Department Officer Dave Wilson appears in a screengrab from a video, recorded during Wilson's interaction with Bewar at Storm Mountain Picnic Area on Sept. 10, 2023.
It’s at this point that narratives from the host, the officer and Bewar’s group diverge.
“The group was immediately argumentative, and refused to leave without a refund. I informed them that they would have to take that up with the Forest Service, or the management company, at a later time,” Wilson wrote in a report.
“The group said that they believed that [the hosts] were racist. They stated that they were extremely rude to them when they got there that day.”
Bewar and his friends, meanwhile, said they felt like the officer was biased and acted as a “team” with the camp hosts. They questioned why the officer did not question the group independently of the hosts.
Wilson wrote that the female host initially stayed at the entrance to the group’s site but walked up to the group during the interaction. Alan Shwani, one of Bewar’s friends, said at one point the woman raised her voice, yelled that Bewar was lying, stepped forward and pointed at Bewar.
Bewar said he in turn called the woman racist and stood up from his chair. Wilson wrote that at that point, “Bewar was standing squared up with [the woman], and had his hand raised towards [her]. I believed that Bewar may become violent or attempt to assault [her].”
Wilson claimed he grabbed Bewar and pulled his hands behind his back after Bewar twice refused orders to sit down. Bewar, his son and his friend claim Wilson grabbed Bewar before he had an opportunity to sit down.
A 17-minute video recorded by Bewar’s 13-year-old son opens with Wilson walking Bewar to a nearby parking lot. Bewar does not appear to resist but tells the officer he has “no right” as Wilson handcuffs his hands behind his back.
Wilson tells the group to get in their cars and leave, while Alan Shwani pleads, “Sir, we have kids with us, you’re scaring the kids.” Wilson responds: “I don’t care. He’s failing to obey a command.”
After the 13-year-old asks whether they have freedom of speech, Wilson spins around with an arm out and yells, “Get back — now! Get back.” Bewar immediately yells, “Don’t touch my son,” and attempts to turn around to face Wilson while cursing.
The video shows Wilson, who is substantially larger in stature than Bewar, pushing Bewar against a car until his feet lift off the ground before pushing him to the ground and turning him onto his stomach. The officer wrote that he “believed that Bewar may attempt to assault me” or to flee, or that the group was going to attempt to interfere with his arrest.
In the video, Bewar says, “I’m not resisting,” “you’re hurting me” and “I didn’t do anything” while he is on the ground.
The hosts did not walk away as the officer restrained Bewar. They instead stayed close, and the female host recorded with her cellphone, according to the video created by Bewar’s son. The boy accused her of being racist, his video shows.
“I’m racist? Do you know how many — my grandfather came to this country,” she responded with a laugh, the video shows. “No, I’m not racist.”
The video shows Bewar on the ground for over five minutes — his shoulder pinned to the asphalt and his legs splayed out — while Wilson waits for backup to arrive.
When Wilson’s supervisor, Sgt. Ed Twohill, arrives, the two men lift Bewar to his feet and take him to a police vehicle. The sergeant debriefs with Wilson before coming to speak with Bewar’s son and friends.
At one point, he calmly tells Bewar’s son, “Just kind of keep your distance, OK? I don’t mind if you record, just don’t be like right behind me or super close, OK?”
After hearing the group’s version of events, Twohill tells them he’s going to speak with the camp hosts separately. Additional police arrived, including from Cottonwood Police Department, and Bewar was soon released. “In the interest of public relations, and in hopes to ease the tension on scene, Bewar was released from custody on scene,” Wilson later wrote.
Photos taken afterward show abrasions on Bewar’s knee, shoulder and hand as well as a welt on his head. Unified Police noted in a statement that Bewar refused offers of medical treatment. No charges were filed against Bewar.
‘Non-compliant people’
Bewar said he made a formal complaint, and a Nov. 13 letter he shared with the UIJP states that the department’s Joint Internal Affairs Unit investigated three allegations from him: that Wilson used excessive force, that he violated Bewar’s civil rights and that he violated the department’s policy that a body camera be worn during encounters with the public.
The letter, which UPD said appears authentic, said that after an “extensive investigation,” the unit sustained only the third allegation. Police records obtained by UIJP show that Wilson received a verbal warning for not wearing a camera.
In an incident report, Wilson said he had already turned in the body camera as his shift was ending, and didn’t realize he had forgotten it at the station until he went to activate it upon arriving at the picnic area.
A supplemental report lists “non-compliant people” as Wilson’s reason for his use of force.
The department’s use of force policy states that officers are only authorized to use force that “reasonably appears necessary to effectively bring an incident under control.” Officers should evaluate the “known circumstances” of an event, such as the seriousness of the crime, level of resistance and the danger to the community, it says.
“Any evaluation of reasonableness” the policy adds, “must allow for the fact that officers are often forced to make split-second decisions about the amount of force that reasonably appears necessary in a particular situation, with limited information and in circumstances that are tense, uncertain and rapidly evolving.”
UPD released a summary of the event but did not respond to several questions from the UIJP. A department spokesperson noted “the investigation uncovered no evidence of racial discrimination and the complainant stated that the officer had made no racial comments.”
A records request to the Unified Police Department for additional disciplinary actions for Wilson did not yield any other records; however, only substantiated police misconduct allegations and discipline are considered public records under Utah law. Bewar’s complaint and the letter he received from the department, for example, were not provided by the department.
‘He needs to get out’
(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) A no swimming or wading sign stands next to Big Cottonwood Creek at the Storm Mountain Picnic Area.
Al Hamashi had been to Storm Mountain Picnic Area before. He knew that splashing in the tantalizing Big Cottonwood Creek running alongside it was off-limits, to protect the watershed for the Salt Lake Valley.
But he was stunned to find himself interrogated by a police officer on July 30, he said, summoned by the female camp host after she accused his children of breaking the rule. Her reaction was a night-and-day contrast to the previous year’s hosts, he said.
The camp host told a 911 operator that two separate groups had been playing in the water. One of the groups, she said, did not want to leave. “They weren’t all in the water, but he said he can’t control his kids,” she said in a recording of the call, referring to Al Hamashi. “But if he can’t control them, he needs to get out.”
The Forest Service’s Campground Host Manual encourages hosts to provide “exceptional customer service” and reminds them that, “your responsibility is not to enforce rules and regulations, but to share information about them with visitors.”
During the call, the woman said: “I guess I’m trying to enforce laws that have not been enforced before and people aren’t liking it.”
A Unified police officer responded to the site shortly after her call. “When I arrived at the picnic site,” he noted in his report, “nobody was in the water and everyone’s clothes appeared dry.”
He continued: “I spoke with Sattar Al Hamashi, the father of the family. Sattar stated that earlier his children were in the stream bed, but they were not in the water.”
The officer wrote in a report that the group was frustrated with the request to leave but complied.
Al Hamashi said that while his interaction with the officer was positive, he felt the hosts could have stopped with a reminder about the rules. “All humans — there’s some racism in them, in their personality — but that lady was really terrible, you know. I think it was racism,” Al Hamashi said.
“I’m not going to put a cable on the kids, I don’t chain my kids like dogs,” he said. “We’re here just to let them enjoy nature. If they touch the water, it’s not the end of the world.”
He later sought a refund for his site fee, he said, but was unsuccessful.
When Bewar’s groups had arrived in September, he said, the hosts immediately threatened to kick them out if they went into the water.
’It’s hard to let go’
Mohamed Shwani, Alan Shwani’s cousin and a Utah Valley University professor, remembers his kids crying and asking to leave during the conflict with the hosts and the officer. Both he and Bewar said they struggled to sleep afterward.
“My kids don’t like to go to the picnic anymore,” Mohamed Shwani said. “They ruined our day and they scared the kids. … From this age, they have a very bad idea about police and about the system.”
The fathers, all Kurds from Iraq, said the impact on their children was frustrating, because they had taught their kids to trust police in this country. Bewar survived a deadly campaign against Kurds in Iraq, faced life as a refugee and said he lost multiple family members who fought alongside U.S. forces.
“I’ve been through a lot, but this one — I think it’s the most impactful event in the recent history of my life,” he said. “It’s hard to let go.”
Bewar feels there has been a lack of accountability for both the officer and the hosts. “I don’t think [letting it go] is good for the community or good for the whole system,” he said. “I think [speaking out] is the right thing to do. Being silent, I don’t think that’s a good idea.”