The nation yet again grapples with another police shooting of an unarmed Black man, resulting in outrage and citizens asking, “When will it end?”
Sacramento, Calif. is the epicenter this time with the police killing of 22-year-old Stephon “Zoe” Clark. Reports indicate officers shot at him 20 times March 18 when they thought he had a gun that turned out to be just a cellphone. The incident was caught on police bodycam video and released by the Sacramento Police Department.
As protests continue in the Golden State, Clark’s family and the community are coming together to lay to rest the father of two young children who family members say loved to make people smile.
Law enforcement officials said police were responding to reports of a subject breaking into vehicles just before 9:20 p.m. The suspect was described as male, 6-foot-1, thin, wearing a black hoodie and dark pants.
The Sacramento Sheriff Department’s helicopter was on the scene and observed the suspect in a backyard and told officers on the ground where he was. The Sheriff’s Department officers in the air said they saw the suspect break the window of a house that belonged to Clark’s grandparents with a toolbar and run toward the front of the residence.
Officers say they gave Clark commands to stop and show his hands, but he ran into the backyard. They followed and yelled, “Show me your hands! Gun! Gun! Gun!” before shooting Clark. Officers said Clark allegedly held an object that he “extended in front of him.” The object was determined to be a cellphone.
Police bodycam video captured the incident. However, reports indicate that an officer is heard saying, “Hey, mute,” before audio from the camera was turned off.
“They didn’t have to kill him like that,” Clark’s grandmother, Sequita Thompson, said during a tearful news conference. “They didn’t have to shoot him that many times. Why didn’t you just shoot him in the arm, shoot him in the leg, send the dogs, send a Taser. Why? Why? Y’all didn’t have to do that.”
No charges have been filed against any officers. The State of California Department of Justice is overseeing the investigation and conducting an independent review.
Clark’s brother, Stevante, said his family is skeptical of the officers’ account of what happened.
He stated, “They said he had a gun. Then they said he had a crowbar. Then they said he had a toolbar … If you lie to me once, I know you’ll lie to me again.”
Since the shooting, protesters in California have been mobilizing at City Hall, the State Attorney General’s office, a major interstate and Golden1Center, where the Sacramento Kings NBA team plays.
Tuesday, protesters attended a City Council meeting demanding answers about the shooting. During one councilmember’s speech, Stevante Clark entered the chambers chanting his brother’s name.
“We must say loud and clear that what happened to Stephon Clark was plain wrong,” Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg said. “It’s wrong, because a 22-year-old man should not die in that way.”
Rev. Al Sharpton is in Sacramento where he’s scheduled to eulogize Clark. Sharpton’s been in communication with the family over the last couple of weeks.
“It is an atrocity that an unarmed young man was shot at 20 times in his own backyard and shows the urgent need in these times for intervention against police misconduct,” he’s said. We will call for a complete and thorough investigation into this young man’s death.”
Black Lives Matter Sacramento founder Tanya Faison said the city and the police department keep changing their stories leading to more unrest.
“They put one story out that he may have been armed. They put out another that he had a ‘tool bar,’ whatever that is,” she told reporters. “Then they put out that he had a wrench, and then they put out that he just had a cellphone. They need to get it together.”
During Wednesday’s White House press briefing, press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders was asked about Donald Trump’s position on the shooting and the nation’s racial climate. The shooting comes as Louisiana Attorney General decides that officers involved in the 2016 police killing of Alton Sterling will not face any charges.
“We want to make sure all law enforcement is carrying out the letter of the law,” Sanders said. “The president is very supportive of law enforcement. But at the same time, in these specific cases and specific instances, those will be left up to local authorities to make that determination and is not something for the federal government to weigh in on.”
