SALT LAKE CITY — A Utah couple is suing Riverton police after an officer shot and killed their son on a sidewalk after a Fourth of July celebration last year. They allege officers used excessive force, then manipulated the scene.

“We really don’t want any other parents to live through the horror and the nightmare of of what we’re going through,” Janelle Ludeman said.

Her son Ryan Ludeman, 23, was leaving the fireworks show last year when he was pulled over by officers investigating a minor car accident. When he refused to take a field sobriety test and police went to handcuff him, body camera video shows they saw a knife in his hand.

The family’s attorney told KSL that as an officer pulled him down, body camera shows he dropped the knife and put his hands up.

“He put his hand down

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