Police video shows death of Stephon Clark in a hail of gunfire
South Sacramento man was unarmed and holding a cellphone
SACRAMENTO – Sacramento police fatally shot Stephon Clark on Sunday night within seconds of encountering him next to his grandparents’ home in south Sacramento, video released Wednesday by the department shows.
About six minutes after the shooting, after backup arrives, an officer can be heard telling another officer, “hey mute.”
Sound then cuts out as officers apparently turn off their microphones. But video continues and the officers can be seen speaking to each other and to at least one civilian on scene for about two more minutes before the video ends.
“We asked, ‘Can they do that,’” said Les Simmons, a pastor and social activist in Sacramento who viewed the footage with two of Clark’s family members Wednesday afternoon prior to its public release. “They all just muted their mics . ... It was a moment of, what are they doing? What are they saying?”
Sacramento police spokesman Sgt. Vance Chandler said, “There are a variety of reasons why officers have the opportunity to mute their body worn cameras.”
Chandler referred a Sacramento Bee reporter to the department’s general orders for details.
Simmons and Clark’s aunt, Saquoia Durham, said after viewing the videos that they believe the fatality could have been avoided.
“As soon as they did the command, they started shooting. They said ‘put your hands up, gun’ and then they just let loose on my nephew,” said Durham.
“They didn’t give him a chance to put his hands up or anything, and then when they shot him down, they knew they messed up,” she said.
The release by the Sacramento police Wednesday included two audio and three video recordings of the fatal shooting of Clark by two officers in Meadowview, a working class neighborhood that has historically had uneasy relations with law enforcement.
Clark was unarmed and holding only a cellphone.
The videos include body camera footage from the two officers involved in the shooting, each of whom fired 10 shots at Clark, according to the department. The officers have not yet been identified, but Chandler said the names would be released within 10 days. The department also said more video from other responding officers would also be released soon.
Included in the videos was aerial footage captured by a Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department helicopter. It’s the first time Sheriff Scott Jones has released video in an officer-involved shooting.
In a frenetic sequence that lasts about 10 seconds, police chase Clark into the backyard of his grandparents’ home, where he had been staying on and off for a month, yelling at him to “show me your hands. Stop. Stop.”
Clark rounds the corner into the dark area and runs toward a covered patio at the far side. He can’t be seen for a moment from overhead while the helicopter circles to a different position, and the body camera footage is dark.
One officer yells, “Show me your hands. Gun,” and quickly ducks back behind the wall for cover. In the bodycam footage, it Sequita Thompson, recounts the horror of seeing her grandson Stephan Clark dead in her backyard after he was shot by police in Sacramento on Sunday.
appears the second officer may be pulling his partner to cover.
Then Clark can be seen taking a few steps toward officers as one officer moves into the backyard again.
The officer yells, “Show me your hands. Gun, gun, gun,” before both officers fire a rapid barrage of shots.
Both officers are illuminating the scene with what appears to be flashlights attached to their weapons. Neither identifies themselves as a police officer.
The overhead video shows one of the first shots hit Clark, sending him crawling on his hands
and knees away from the backdoor of the house, before more than 15 additional bullets go flying from their chambers.
Police training expert Ed Obayashi said after viewing some of the video that the shooting was “reasonable” and that firing so many shots was standard procedure.
“It looks bad, but (the officers) are still perceiving a threat,” said Obayashi. “He’s not obeying. He’s running from them. He suddenly turns. The problem is he’s got an object in his hand which unfortunately even during daylight could easily be considered a gun.”
Simmons said he believed
it was “a lack of proper training to handle a situation like this.”
“Even if he did what they say was done, at the end of the day it does not justify his life being taken,” said Simmons.
The videos were released Wednesday afternoon after police met with Clark’s family members to allow them to view the materials first. Simmons was also present.
Allowing family to see such videos before they are released to the public is part of a city policy adopted in late 2016 by the city of Sacramento after the fatal shooting by police of Joseph Mann, a mentally ill black man.