SALT LAKE CITY — The brother of the man shot and killed by Salt Lake City Police two weeks ago is speaking out about the way officers handled the call.
It's been one day since Morgan Cloward sat down with the chief of police and watched the bodycam video of his brother's last minute of life.
"All I said to them was, 'All of you know that was wrong. All of you know that was too excessive,'" he said. "And I just walked out."
On April 2 around 2:30 a.m., dispatchers received a call from a Chevron employee at 900 South and State Street.
"911, what's your emergency?" asked dispatch.
"There's a guy over here with a knife trying to stab me from the window," said the caller.
When police arrived, they found 36-year-old Cameron Cloward walking around with a pocketknife.
"Put the knife down! Put the knife down!" said an officer.
Morgan said Cameron had autism and schizophrenic episodes. He said his brother functioned similarly to a 12-year-old.
"He's acting like a very scared and disoriented version of my brother," he said.
According to a 2022 study in the journal Psychiatry, Psychology and Law, unfamiliar situations "such as an interaction with police personnel" can exacerbate an adult with autism's "anxiety, impacting on behavior and functioning."
The study states it's common to see communication barriers and difficulties understanding instructions.
The authors also wrote that high levels of anxiety and agitation are "misperceived as signs of suspicious behavior or guilt" and that an interaction with police can "escalate or have unnecessary outcomes."
"To the public, Cameron was just a threat. He was a homeless guy. 'Well done, officers,'" said Morgan. "But to me, that was my brother and he was in a crisis."
Bodycam video shows Cameron walking toward officers and not putting the pocketknife down.
"Get on the ground. You will get shot!" said an officer before the shooting.
"People say, 'Well, there was no other choice.' How do you know?" said Morgan. "There was no attempt at another choice. There was no attempt at tasers. There was no attempt at a less lethal means. There was no attempt at even talking to him."
The Salt Lake City Police Department told FOX 13 News that all officers carry a taser.
At one point before the shooting, an officer requested a "less lethal shotgun."
Bodycam video shows one of the officers running to grab it, but doesn't make it in time.
Morgan wonders why one of them wasn't carrying the less lethal shotgun in the first place.
"His body was littered with bullets. I don't think that should be the response to someone with a pocketknife with the issues Cameron had," he said.
A spokesperson with the department told FOX 13 News they do not know the exact measurement of the pocketknife blade length. That's part of the Salt Lake County Officer Involved Critical Incident Protocol Team's investigation.
"Any loss of life is tragic, and the use of deadly force is a traumatic event for our officers. This situation unfolded very quickly and involved safety risks to our community and officers. Our officers are trained to perceive, interpret, and respond to a person’s actions," wrote Salt Lake City Police Chief Mike Brown in a statement Monday.
Brown went on to write, "The body-worn camera footage released today shows our officers urging, and ordering, Mr. Cloward to put down his knife and to stop walking toward them. Maintaining the safety of our community can be full of risk and unpredictability."
