
© Salt Lake Tribune
High on spice, a 16-year-old boy had fallen asleep along a busy street in Murray in June. Someone tried to roust him by rubbing his chest, then grabbing his wrists. The boy felt pain, so he swung his leg at the stranger and slurred, "Please go."
"Hey, a--hole!" the stranger said as he punched the teen in the face. "What's wrong with you, huh?"
That's when the teen realized that the person trying to wake him up was a police officer, who, after punching him, pressed his face into the ground.
"I was in shock," the boy testified at a recent trial for Murray Police Sgt. Luis Argueta-Salazar. "Like who was hitting me? I don't know who it is."
At first, the boy didn't tell anyone he had been punched. And Argueta didn't inform his supervisors that he had used force against the teen as he responded to a report of an unconscious person who may need help.But two people waiting in a nearby tire shop saw what Argueta did and called the Murray Police Department two days later.
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