Two Sacramento police officers will not be charged for shooting Stephon Clark, an unarmed black man, in California last March, prosecutors state.
Clark, 22, was shot at least seven times in the backyard of his grandmother’s home in Sacramento.
As reported by the district attorney, the officers, who were investigating close by burglaries, did not commit a crime.
The death triggered protests and inflamed national anger over police use of violence, specifically towards black men.
“There is no question a human being died,” District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert shared with reporters once she made an apology to the Clark family.
A month-long investigation up until the March 2018 shooting was observed as to whether a crime was made. “The answer to that question is no and, as a result, there was no criminal liability.”
The use of violence was explained, Ms. Schubert stated, as the officers were scared for their lives, assuming Mr. Clark was armed with a gun and had supposed started to approach the officers.
Police body camera and helicopter video eventually showed the officers firing 20 shots at Mr. Clark, who was actually discovered to only have an iPhone, and they waited five minutes before helping him.
The officers, who were put on administrative leave last year, wish to remain anonymous for fear of their safety. However, Sacramento’s police chief Daniel Hahn shared that the department would carry out its own investigation, and contingent on the information, the officers could be dismissed.
District Attorney Schubert also said there was a domestic violence complaint against Stephon Clark two days before his death by the mother of Mr. Clark’s children, and that he had searched suicide localities.
Drugs were detected in his system following his death, and besides his “state of despair” would have “affected his judgment,” she said.
But Mr. Clark’s family and activists scolded Ms. Schubert for speaking about that information.
“Those officers didn’t know any of that when they had him in the backyard and they killed him,” Black Lives Matter leader Tanya Faison shared.
Ms. Schubert continued to ask for forgiveness for bringing up the information while she was presenting.
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