A police officer involved in the fatal shooting of a young black man in Utah wrote an article warning parents that their children might be taking drugs if they showed a particularly deep interest in Rastafarian culture or dance music.

Corporal Matthew Schauerhamer, who has been placed on paid leave following the death of Darrien Hunt, posted an essay online offering advice on how to recognise if a child is “descending into the culture and subcultures that drug users associate with”.

Schauerhamer, 32, told parents that if their son or daughter was fanatical about Bob Marley and wore a red, yellow and green Rastafarian-style hat, it was a strong indication of drug use.

The article was first published in June this year by the Crossroads Journal, a regional newspaper serving Saratoga Springs, where Hunt was shot dead at a strip mall earlier this month after allegedly lunging at Schauerhamer and another officer with a replica samurai-style sword before fleeing.

Schauerhamer’s lawyer said the article should be read in the context of his training as a “drug recognition expect”, and should be viewed as a “simplified public information piece” and not as a “scholarly analysis of race”.

Schauerhamer devoted a section of his article to Rastafarian culture. He wrote:

Bob Marley and his music are sublime to some people. Just because you have an entire archive on your iPod that is specifically dedicated to Bob Marley, doesn’t necessarily mean you’re a drug user. Having George Strait’s greatest hits on your iPod doesn’t mean you’re a cowboy. However, if your child is listening to Bob Marley’s Kaya, is wearing a Bob Marley shirt with Bob Marley on it smoking a joint, has a Bob Marley poster in his room, and is wearing a Rasta hat (red, yellow and green), it is highly likely your child is highly high. If they have Rasta colored anything, it is a good bet your child uses or hangs out with drug users. Oh, and by the way – if your child hangs out with drug users, your child’s probability of being a drug user goes up exponentially.

Schauerhamer conceded that “just because someone likes a certain kind of music or wears certain colors doesn’t necessarily mean they are drug users”. But he warns parents that some promotional messages from “the drug culture” are “obscured and secretive”.

Different music subcultures are so closely related to drug use that advertising the music is like advertising the drugs themselves. Artists such as Wiz Khalifa is the modern-day poster boy for weed. Lil Wayne is infamous for codeine abuse also known as “Sizzurp or purple drank.” The Insane Clown Posse, with its “Juggalo and Jugalette” parishioners, are associated with basically any drug ever used, ever. They have such predominant, mainstreamed drug abuse tones and references in their music that it is impossible to ignore their overt advertisement of drug lifestyles.

The population of Saratoga Springs, which is about 35 miles south of Salt Lake City, is 93% white and 0.5% black. Friends have said that Hunt, whose main interests were hip-hop music and art, stood out. Hunt’s mother, Susan, has accused the police of targeting her son because of his race. Police and prosecutors deny this.

An attorney for the Hunt family says that a private autopsy shows Hunt was shot six times from behind. An investigation is being carried out by Utah County officials. Hunt’s family has asked the Obama administration to launch a federal civil rights inquiry.

As well as submitting the article to the Crossroads Journal, Schauerhamer posted it to his personal blog, where he wrote that “controversy and I have usually inhabited the same space”. The entire blog – described as “Officer Matt Schauerhamer’s law enforcement musings” – has since been taken offline. However, cached versions of some articles remain viewable online.

Bret Rawson, Schauerhamer’s attorney, told the Guardian by email that the article about drug use should not be read as a cultural critique. “The article is not a scholarly analysis of race or the cultural influence of black musicians, nor does it purport to deconstruct black culture. Rather, the article only seeks to help parents understand and identify clues within their children, as they may relate to drug use.



“Just as a uniform and badge might identify a police officer, so too clothing displaying drugs or persons who have become associated with drug culture might indicate to a parent that a child is experimenting with or considering drug use.”

Rawson said that the article did not attempt to draw a link between drugs and black musicians, or black people in general. “To read anything else into this article is a stretch and would be inconsistent with the article as a whole,” he said.

Schauerhamer has worked for the police in Saratoga Springs since 2009. He previously worked for more than three years at the force in nearby American Fork.

In another essay published to his personal blog in October last year and since taken offline, Schauerhamer advocated arming some school teachers with firearms in order to protect students from gunmen.

“Though it may sound cliché, the only thing that can stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun,” wrote Schauerhamer, repeating a slogan used by Wayne LaPierre, the chief executive of the National Rifle Association, after the massacre at Sandy Hook elementary school in Connecticut in 2012.

Calling for a few staff members in every school to be turned into “shooter suppression devices,” Schauerhamer wrote: “In a time when many are calling for disarmament, now may be time to call to arms.”

This image from Schauerhamer’s Facebook page shows him with a young girl wearing a helmet and holding a gun. Photograph: Facebook

Schauerhamer’s personal Facebook page last week contained a photograph of him posing with a young girl wearing a helmet and holding a rifle-like gun. It was not clear whether or not the gun was genuine. The Facebook page was removed from public view before the Saratoga Springs police department announced publicly on Friday evening that he and officer Nicholas Judson were the two involved in the shooting of Hunt.

A listing for Schauerhamer on LinkedIn, the business networking website, until recently described him as a “writer/journalist” and “graphic designer” as well as a police officer.

Some of Schauerhamer’s designs can be found in an account at Deviantart, the online art community. He created a T-shirt for colleagues bearing the slogan “Swat” and featuring an illustration of a police officer in military-style uniform and pointing a rifle.

He designed a graphical representation of “the thin blue line”, the nickname commonly given to the police, describing this in a caption as “the line between good and evil”.

He also redesigned the classic Barack Obama “Hope” campaign poster, substituting his own face for the president’s. “I’m pretty sure I could be a politician,” he wrote in a caption, “how hard could it be?”

Schauerhamer’s LinkedIn listing is also no longer viewable by the public. A Google Plus account previously belonging to Schauerhamer has also been taken offline. One of the cached articles still viewable on his personal blog says that Schauerhamer “acknowledges being a very polarising person”.