Occupy Salt Lake camp ordered shut down after man found dead

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SALT LAKE CITY | Fri Nov 11, 2011 6:13pm EST

SALT LAKE CITY (Reuters) - Police ordered protesters at an Occupy Wall Street offshoot demonstration in Salt Lake City out of a city park on Friday after a member of their camp was found dead, police said.

"We realized one of the worst fears that I have as a police chief," Salt Lake City police chief Chris Burbank told protesters and onlookers in downtown Pioneer Park. "One of our citizens died."

Preliminary investigations indicate that carbon monoxide poisoning from a propane heater and possibly a drug overdose were responsible for the man's death, police said.

"The body of a man was found today around 10am in a tent with a camp stove and a syringe," organizers said on their Twitter account.

Salt Lake City police have given protesters until sundown on Saturday to leave the public park, although Burbank said he wanted to work with the demonstrators to find an alternate place for them to continue their protest.

Occupy Salt Lake City is part of a campaign launched in September to protest economic inequality, corporate excesses, high unemployment and bailouts of major banks.

(Reporting by James Nelson and Mary Slosson; Writing by Mary Slosson; Editing by David Bailey)
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Comments (3)
Mafettig wrote:
So, if our gov wants to end these protests, all someone needs to do is die? Isn’t this a little too easy for them?

Nov 11, 2011 6:49pm EST  --  Report as abuse
dualcitizen wrote:
Sorry this guy is dead, but it says a lot about the type that the ows (tiny fraction of the 99%)”protest” is beginning to attract.

Nov 11, 2011 6:55pm EST  --  Report as abuse
Buelligan wrote:
This person is as much a representative of OWS as Larry Craig is a representative of the republican party.

I’m sorry, thats not true…Larry Craig was elected to office, so he is more representative of the republican party than this person is to OWS.

(Larry Craig was the foot tapping Republican senator soliciting gay sex from a cop in an airport bathroom)

Nov 12, 2011 9:49am EST  --  Report as abuse
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