(Jerri Hrubes and her son, DJ. Photo Credit: Laura Seitz, Deseret News)
DAVIS COUNTY – The Woods Cross Police Department is under increased pressure for answers after an officer reportedly pointed a gun at a ten-year-old boy. The child’s mother is demanding an independent investigation into what happened, and why.
Jerri Hrubes lives in Montana but is visiting her childhood home in West Bountiful. Late Thursday, she says she hadn’t received any warning from police that officers were looking for a suspect involved in a chase that ended in the area.
She heard screaming outside the house and when she went out to see what it was she claims she saw the officer pointing the gun at her son, DJ, and ordering him to the ground.
Hrubes says, “I ran out of the door and I put my hands in the air and I screamed to the police officer, ‘What are you doing? This is a ten-year-old child.’”
Shortly after this, Hrubes claims the officer left, not giving any information about why the gun was drawn. She called to complain right away.
“I said to dispatch, ‘My son, my ten-year-old child was just held at gunpoint, and I’m not OK with that. I want to file a formal complaint,’” Hrubes says.
Neither Hrubes nor her attorney are discussing any kind of lawsuit, but, she doesn’t believe the Woods Cross Police Department should be investigating this case. Her lawyer hopes the Utah Attorney General’s Office will pick it up. Hrubes says she is generally very supportive of police officers.
“I see the good in them and I support everything, but I do not support putting a child of ten years old at gunpoint with no explanations back to me,” she adds.
She also says other children who live nearby were told to get into their homes while police were looking for their suspect, but her son didn’t get that warning. That leads her to believe the officer’s actions were racially motivated.
Hrubes isn’t calling for Officer Mike Daughtery to be fired, however, the group Black Lives Matter is. Group Spokesperson Josianne Petit says the officer was close enough to see DJ was a child and wasn’t the suspect they were looking for. She also says takes issue with people commenting that DJ looks a lot older than ten.
“Pictures don’t represent what he actually looks like in person, and, the cops didn’t see a picture of him, they saw him in person,” Petit says.
The NAACP Salt Lake Branch is also calling for an independent investigation, and they’re asking why the officer’s body camera wasn’t turned on.
The Woods Cross Police Department did not return our calls asking for a response. In previous interviews, department officials have said Daughtery drew his weapon after telling DJ to get on the ground, but they claimed he didn’t point the weapon directly at the boy.