Hundreds of members of Sacramento’s black community took over city hall for an emotionally tense period Tuesday evening to demand justice for and express outrage over the death of Stephon Clark, an unarmed black man who was shot multiple times last week in his grandmother’s backyard by police investigating reports of vandalism.
The City Council was holding a public meeting to discuss the shooting and hear from the public. According to the New York Times, community leaders voiced their grievances to the council as a group of around 300 protesters outside in the building’s foyer chanted loudly. Police in riot gear stood by.
Clark, a 22-year-old with two young sons, was spotted in his grandmother’s backyard by officers in a helicopter who identified him as the man who was reportedly breaking car windows in the neighborhood. When officers advanced toward Clark on the ground, they say he fled toward the back of the house, turned and, according to the officers, advanced toward police with an “object” in his hand. Police have said the two officers that then shot him thought it was a gun. Clark was holding a cellphone.
Early in the meeting, Stevante Clark, Stephon Clark’s brother, interrupted and started cursing at Sacramento’s mayor, Darrell Steinberg, according to the Times. He jumped on the desk in front of Steinberg and started chanting his brother’s name. One activist asked people in the room to take out their cellphones and point them at the council members, demanding to know if their phones looked like guns. Three hours in, according to the Times, protesters outside the building started banging on the windows and, when police tried to move one of the protesters, shoved the officers. The police then pulled out their batons and retreated, and around 25 more officers showed up. At one point in the evening, a person was arrested.
Protesters also blocked entrances of the Golden 1 Center a few blocks away, where the Sacramento Kings were set to play a game, preventing some fans from being able to enter the arena.
At the public meeting on Tuesday, Steinberg promised to push the police for answers. Clark’s family has hired the civil rights lawyer who represented the families of Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown to explore a potential lawsuit against the police department. The family is skeptical of there being a fair and just investigation, according to the Washington Post.
According to the Sacramento Bee, the two officers who shot him multiple times held their position for around five minutes before approaching Clark’s body. The officers have been placed on administrative leave as the state attorney general’s office conducts an investigation into Clark’s killing, as well as the department’s training and protocols.
In the body camera video from the incident, police muted their cameras after Clark was killed. Police Chief Daniel Hahn has said he does not know why.
