Protest over shooting of unarmed black man overtakes freeway Page 5A
SACRAMENTO — Protesters decrying this week’s fatal shooting of an unarmed black man marched from Sacramento City Hall and onto a nearby freeway Thursday, disrupting rush hour traffic and holding signs with messages like “Sac PD: Stop killing us!”
Hundreds of people rallied for Stephon Clark, a 22-year-old who was shot Sunday in the backyard of his grandparents’ home. Police say they feared he had a handgun when they confronted him after reports that he had been breaking windows in the South Sacramento neighborhood.
But police found only a cellphone.
“We are at a place of deep pain” because of recent violence directed at black people in Sacramento and elsewhere,” said the Rev. Les Simmons, a community leader. He said the city’s first black police chief, Daniel Hahn, is doing what he can but protested the actions of Hahn’s officers.
Clinton Primm said he was friends with Clark, who was nicknamed “Zoe,” for about six years and fears others are also at risk at being shot by police.
“He was a great dad,” he recalled of Clark, the father of sons ages 1 and 3. “He loved both of them to death.”
Sacramento resident Vanessa Cullars said she has lost two family members to police violence.
“I’m fed up with this,” she said at the protest. “I feel like our lives don’t matter to them.”
Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg earlier said he was horrified but won’t second-guess the “split-second decisions” of the officers. He praised Hahn for quickly releasing videos of the shooting and said the department has improved its policies since the fatal shooting of a mentally ill black man in 2016.