UNITED STATES—Sacramento County District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert announced on Saturday, March 2 that she will not file charges against the two police officers who fatally shot Stephon Clark, 22, in March 2018.
Schubert stated during a news conference that “The law requires we judge the reasonableness of officer’s actions based upon the circumstances confronting them at that moment of time.”
She elaborated on evidence presented by investigators, and the Sacramento Police Department indicating how the law applies when officers are justified to use fatal force on suspects. Family members and friends expressed their anger, accusing the district attorney of creating a “smear campaign.”
A total of 84 protesters were arrested in East Sacramento on Monday, March 4, 2019. Clark’s mother, SeQuette Clark, told reporters: “I don’t care if he was a criminal. None of that matters. What matters is how those officers came with lethal force around a corner, on a vandalism call, after my son and gunned him down when he had nothing, but a cell phone in his hand.”
On March 18, 2018, officers from the Sacramento Police Department responded to a 911 call of a man breaking car windows in the South Sacramento neighborhood of Meadowview. According police reports, evidence shows Clark broke the windows, and smashed a neighbors sliding glass door with cinder blocks.
He was spotted in running towards his grandmother’s backyard, where officers Jared Robinet and Terrence Mercadal believed he had a gun in his hand, where they fired 20 shots at Clark, hitting him at least eight times in the back. It was later revealed that Clark was holding a cellphone in his hand. Clark is survived by his two sons, fiancé, mother and grandmother.
On Tuesday, March 5, California Attorney General Xavier Baccera announced that he would not file criminal charges against the two officers who fatally shot Clark. Clark’s mother has filed a $20 million wrongful death lawsuit against the city of Sacramento and officers Jared Robinet and Terrence Mercadal.
