WOODS CROSS — The Utah Department of Public Safety will now investigate whether a Woods Cross police sergeant broke the law or engaged in racial profiling when he pulled a gun on a 10-year-old black child last week.

The announcement Friday came as welcome news to the family of DJ Hrubes, who have been calling for an independent investigation of the incident since the June 6 encounter, an attorney for the Hrubes family said.

Protesters at a rally outside the Woods Cross police station Friday evening also cheered the development. But some organizers of the rally, representing Black Lives Matter Utah and Utahns Against Police Brutality, said an investigation isn't enough: they want to see the officer fired and systemic changes made to keep a similar incident from happening again.

"I've seen hundreds of investigations, and guess who's never found guilty? The police," Jacob Jensen of Utahns Against Police Brutality told a crowd of over one hundred protesters, who held signs reading "Black Lives Matter," "Implicit Bias Kills" and "You Don't Have To Be Black To Be Outraged."

Woods Cross Police Chief Chad Soffe had originally asked the Davis County Attorney's Office to "review" but not investigate the incident, but apparently changed his mind after Davis County Attorney Troy Rawlings said his office would only conduct a full criminal investigation into the officer's actions and not a lesser "review" of the incident.

Attorney Heather White, who has been hired to represent the city of Woods Cross, said Friday that the city has now decided to ask the Department of Public Safety to investigate whether the sergeant violated department policies, engaged in racial profiling, used excessive force or engaged in any criminal conduct.

The police department came under fire last week after the Hrubes family said an officer searching for potentially armed suspects pointed a gun at 10-year-old DJ's head while the child was playing in a relative's front yard in West Bountiful.

The sergeant was wearing a body camera but did not turn it on when he confronted the child at gunpoint. The police department has publicly defended the officer's actions on the day of the incident, saying he did not violate protocol and did nothing wrong.

Members of the Hrubes family and three passersby who witnessed the encounter have said the police officer pulled up in front of the house, got out of his car, pointed a gun directly at DJ, and told him to get on the ground — an order they say the boy complied with right away.

According to mother Jerri Hrubes, the officer then drove off without explaining his actions to her or her son. She says the officer returned later in the day to apologize to DJ, telling the child, "I am so sorry I pointed my gun at you."

Related:

Mother who says Utah officer pointed gun at child's head calls for investigation

A mother who says a Woods Cross police officer pointed a gun at her 10-year-old son is calling for an independent investigation of the incident.

Hrubes told reporters last week that the family is not calling for the officer to be fired; they have only asked for an independent investigation.

White also confirmed Friday that the police department has not interviewed any witnesses to the encounter other than the sergeant himself. Some of the information from witnesses who have spoken to the Deseret News has appeared to conflict with information released by police.

A Woods Cross police lieutenant initially said the sergeant was helping in a search following a high-speed chase when he spotted DJ in the yard and believed he might be involved. The department confirmed that the officer pulled his gun out of his holster and held it at the "low-ready" position, but said he did not point it at the boy's head and did not violate protocol.

The lieutenant also said that DJ, when first told by the officer to get on the ground, ran around to the back of the house and it wasn't until the officer followed him there that he pulled his gun out of his holster, believing the boy might try to run or jump the fence.

In a statement released through White on Wednesday, police said the officer drew his gun after DJ began running toward the officer.

The lieutenant on the day of the incident said that officers were searching for two people: one was described as Hispanic and the race of the other suspect was unknown. On Monday, Soffe said police were looking for two black people. On Wednesday, White said police were told that one of the suspects was Hispanic and the other was black.

Three men driving by in a car who did not know the Hrubes family have told the media that they did not see DJ run, either toward or away from the officer.

Woods Cross police have not interviewed any witnesses to the encounter, including the men in the car, because they "wanted to make sure that there were no possible implications of (the department) trying to manipulate any facts," White said Friday.

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More conflicting details emerge in Utah case of police drawing gun on child

After witnessing a police officer point his gun at a young black boy during a search for potentially violent men last week, Jaxon Wood didn't want to be anywhere near the scene.

She said that the department stopped its own investigation of the incident — which would have included interviewing witnesses — after becoming aware of allegations of misconduct and racial profiling and realizing there would likely need to be an independent investigation.

White said she did not have an exact timeline of when the department halted its own investigation, but "it all happened so quickly that they immediately stopped to make sure there was no bias in witnesses."

The department immediately defended the sergeant's actions, White said, because department leaders did not have any information beyond the sergeant's description of what happened when the media began reporting on the encounter several hours after it occurred.

"They didn’t have any information that the officer did anything wrong," White said.

Jerri Hrubes has said she believes her son was targeted because of the color of his skin. "He committed the crime of being a child that’s black, in a town where there’s not a lot" of black people, she said.

Karra Porter, the attorney for the Hrubes family, said she and the family were pleased to hear about the request for the state’s broader investigation into racial profiling, use of force, and police department policy.

“It sounds like what we’ve been asking for,” Porter said, noting that a narrower criminal investigation by the county attorney’s office “wouldn’t have answered any of our questions. To get an actual investigation, it was appropriate to look to the state.”

The rally outside the police station Friday featured speakers from Black Lives Matter Utah, Utahns Against Police Brutality, and Mormon Women for Ethical Government. Mormon Women for Ethical Government has called only for an independent investigation of the incident, not for the firing of the officer.

"Even though the various organizations participating in Friday's event are not all perfectly aligned in their messaging or goals, we feel strongly that we must all come together in a broader call for better accountability for law enforcement officers and agencies," said executive director Diana Bate Hardy in a statement.

Black Lives Matter Utah organizer Lex Scott said after the event that the investigation announced Friday is "definitely … very exciting." However, she added, "they should have done it in the first place."

Along with the officer being fired, Scott said, Black Lives Matter Utah would like to see more race-related training for Utah officers.

Josianne Petit, another organizer with Black Lives Matter Utah, praised rally attendees for raising public awareness of the incident through social media.

"That happened because of you," Petit said. "It got the state talking. It got the national media talking. You are powerful." Email: gkauffman@deseretnews.com Twitter: gretelkauffman

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