Charging cops urged at rally in California

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The family of Stephon Clark joined at least 200 people at a rally Saturday, urging city residents not to let his memory or calls for police reform fade nearly two weeks after the 22-yearold unarmed black man was killed by Sacramento officers.

Clark’s fiance, Salena Manni, stood on a stage in a park with his two young sons, grandmother and uncle for the gathering organized by Sacramento native and former NBA player Matt Barnes, who pledged to create a scholarship fund for the children of black men killed by police.

“All he wanted to do was go see his sons again, and unfortunately he can’t,” Curtis Gordon, Clark’s uncle, said as he recalled seeing his nephew hours before the shooting. “So remember that — while we mourn, while we shout, while we cry — because it ain’t just our pain, it’s their pain.”

Barnes amplified calls for charges against the two officers, who are on administrative leave.

“It’s more than color — it comes down to right and wrong,” he said. “You’re trying to tell me I can kill someone and get a paid vacation?”

A private autopsy released by the family showed that Clark was shot from behind on March 18 by two police officers responding to a call of someone breaking into car windows. Before shooting, the officers yelled that Clark had a gun, but it was only a cellphone.

Among the speakers Saturday were relatives of Joseph Mann, killed by Sacramento police in 2016, and the head of a police-oversight commission, who called for attending meetings and pushing for systemic change.

Pathologist Dr. Bennet Omalu points to details in a diagram showing the gunshot wounds he found on the body of Stephon Clark who was shot by Sacramento police, during a news conference Friday, March 30, 2018, in Sacramento, Calif. Omalu was hired by the attorneys of the Clark family to perform the independent autopsy.