FEAR FACTOR
Ex-Sac King: Cops shot Clark out of fright, not fact
FORMER Sacramento Kings player Matt Barnes led hundreds of protesters in a California rally Saturday denouncing the police killing of unarmed black man Stephon Clark.
Demonstrators flooded the streets one day after an independent autopsy — ordered by the young father’s family lawyer — concluded that Clark, 22, took six bullets to the back in his grandmother’s backyard March 18.
The largely peaceful protest turned tragic late Saturday when a Sacramento County Sheriff Department’s vehicle struck a demonstrator. The condition of the victim, who was said to be a woman, was not immediately clear.
Earlier, Barnes told the crowd that the killing had implications beyond Clark’s race.
“It’s more than color. It’s about wrong and right,” Barnes said at the Rally for Unity and Action, the Los Angeles Times reported.
“You’re trying to tell me I can kill someone and get a paid vacation?”
Barnes condemned police for opening fire out of fear and called on officers to “get out of your cars” while patrolling neighborhoods.
“Learn the community that you’re out here patrolling,” said Barnes who announced a scholarship fund for Clark’s two sons, ages 3 and 1.
The victim’s relatives and friends — as well as current Kings guard Garrett Temple — were among the hundreds of protesters who attended the largely peaceful rally.
Clark’s fiancee, Salena Manni, stood on stage with his sons, grandmother and uncle.
“He was always full of love, he was always smiling,” Clark family friend Jamilia Land told CNN at the demonstration.
“He wanted everyone around him to feel loved, he wanted them to be happy,” she said.
Dr. Bennet Omalu conducted an autopsy days after Clark was killed by police .
Omalu said Friday that police shot Clark a total of eight times.
Seven bullets struck Clark while his back was turned toward the officers who fired at him, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Clark was struck once in the thigh — likely while he was on the ground after already having been struck, Omalu said.
The officers who shot him were searching for a suspect who was breaking car windows in the neighborhood.
The cops fired more than 20 shots at the innocent man after they mistook his cell phone for a weapon.