The 911 call that led to the fatal police shooting of a 22-year-old man with a replica sword in Utah did not mention that he was acting suspiciously, despite claims by authorities that the officers involved were acting on a report of a “suspicious individual”.

A recording of the call released by authorities showed that Darrien Hunt was reported to be “just walking” around a strip mall in Saratoga Springs last month with a samurai-style sword, which his family say was bought from a gift shop and not dangerous.

Openly carrying a real sword is legal under Utah’s liberal weapons laws, Evan Kirby, a spokesman for the Utah department for public safety, said on Friday. “You can carry anything,” he said.

A man who said he was on his way to work told a Utah Valley 911 dispatcher that he had seen “a guy walking towards kind of the Walmart area wearing a red shirt, but he was carrying a samurai sword”. He later added that Hunt was “just, like I say, walking”.

A statement by the Utah County Attorney’s Office on 13 September, three days after Hunt’s death, said that the officers had “responded to a report of a suspicious individual”. A spokesman for the office did not respond to a request for comment on Friday.

Cindy Moss, Hunt’s aunt, told the Guardian last month that based on witness accounts his family had received, it appeared that “he wasn’t bothering anyone” before police arrived.

Hunt is alleged to have then “brandished the sword and lunged toward the officers” following a confrontation outside a bank. Witnesses have said that they saw Hunt running away as shots rang out. He died outside a restaurant about 100 yards away, having been shot six times.

The report of an autopsy commissioned by Hunt’s family, a copy of which was obtained by the Guardian, states that it concluded Hunt was shot from behind at least three times. The three other shots may have struck him as he was turned away from the shooter, Dr J Wallace Graham, the pathologist who carried out the autopsy, told the Guardian on Friday.

The pathologist concluded that the fatal shot entered Hunt’s lower back and perforated his right lung. “The direction of the wound is back to front,” he wrote. No exit wound for the shot was found. A shot in Hunt’s right shoulder and another in his left elbow also travelled back to front, according to Graham.

Graham said that it was unclear which way Hunt was facing when he was struck by the other three shots – one through his right wrist and two in his left posterior thigh. The pathologist had been unable to examine potentially useful evidence such as Hunt’s clothing. Robert Sykes, an attorney for Hunt’s family, said they believed the two shots to the leg came as Hunt ran away.

Shots from the police also fractured Hunt’s left elbow, right shoulder and left femur, according to the autopsy report. “It is my opinion Darrien Hunt died of multiple gunshot wounds,” Graham concluded.

Graham, a former chief medical examiner for the state of Utah, had not previously been identified as the author of the autopsy report. Another autopsy was carried out by the state medical examiner’s office. The report on that autopsy has not yet been published.

A team of county law enforcement officials is investigating the shooting and is due to report to the county attorney’s office. The two officers involved, corporal Matt Schauerhamer and officer Nicholas Judson, have been placed on paid leave by Saratoga Springs police.

Hunt’s family have suggested he may have been cos-playing, or dressing up as a comic book character, on the morning that he was shot by police. They released sketches of manga-style characters that Hunt had drawn before his death,

Hunt’s mother, Susan, has accused the police department of targeting her son because of his race. Susan Hunt is white; Hunt’s father, Curtis is black. The city’s population is 93% white and 0.5% black. The county attorney’s office said there is “no indication that race played any role in the confrontation”.

Hunt’s family have requested a federal civil rights inquiry like one being carried out into the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, in August.

The 911 call recording showed that when asked by the dispatcher for Hunt’s race, the caller said he was “darker-skinned, so I don’t know if was black or polynesian”. He specified when asked that Hunt had “kind of Afro-style” hair.