SALT LAKE CITY â Friends of a 20-year-old shot and killed by police flocked to a Salt Lake City 7-11 Tuesday night for a vigil.
Dillon Taylor was with his brother and cousin Monday night and relatives say no one, including Taylor, was armed when the trio encountered Salt Lake City police.
âI canât believe it. Iâm mortified, whatâs happened here isnât OK,â said Josh Siegel, the victimâs friend.
Wearing T-shirts saying âRIPâ and holding flowers and balloons, more than 70 friends paid their respects to Taylor behind the 7-11 convenience store at 2100 South and State Street.
âHe didnât have no gun, itâs police brutality and we need to do something to stop this,â said Chris Gavaldon.
âHe was a kid going into a 7-11 to get a drinks,â said Gina Thayne, the victimâs aunt.
âWe walked out of the 7-11 and next thing we know weâre being ambushed by the Salt Lake Police Department,â said Jerrail Tanner, the victimâs brother.
Three Salt Lake City officers responded to a complaint.
âOfficers were looking in that area for a man with a gun, according to the 911 call,â said Sgt. Darin Sweeten, South Salt Lake Police Department.
Itâs unclear if Taylor was their suspect but he matched the description, police say. When the officers confronted the trio, they say two of them complied but Taylor walked away, listening to music on headphones. Thatâs when police shot and killed Taylor. Itâs unclear what prompted the gunfire or whether Taylor reached for something. Investigators havenât said if the man was armed, but relatives who were with him say he wasnât.
âNone of us even had anything. I believe he had a cellphone and it didnât even leave his pocket,â Tanner said.
âI see him go to pull his pants up but he didnât go for anything else,â said Adam Thayne, the victimâs cousin.
âWith this being a multi-agency investigation, you have the district attorneyâs investigators involved, itâs just not something that weâre ready to release,â Sweeten said.
âThey said they thought his phone was a gun is what they told my cousin but I donât even think he brought his phone out, his hands were empty,â Thayne said
there are still a number of unknowns. Investigators arenât saying how many shots were fired or whether one officer pulled the trigger or all three.
The three officers are on paid administrative leave while South Salt Lake Police are in an unusual position, investigating a neighboring police agency. Salt Lake City Police Department will conduct an internal investigation and the district attorney will determine if he feels the shooting is justified or not.
Meanwhile, court records show Dillon Taylor was wanted for a parole violation and mentioned a possible arrest warrant.
In unsettling posts on Facebook just a few days before the shooting. He said his life hit rock bottom, that he was homeless and thought his life was coming to an end.
