Opposing view: ‘Shooting was legally justified under the law’

Timothy Davis, president of the Sacramento Police Officers’ Association, didn’t respond to a request for an Opposing view. He issued this statement, parts of which have been disputed:

The shooting of Stephon Clark was a tragedy and affects all members of our community. Every life has value, and the loss of even one life is a loss for our community. Our Sacramento police officers value life and have taken an oath to protect this community. No officer ever wants to take a life.

Even as tragic as this event is, we cannot ignore the fact that the shooting was legally justified under the law, within police policy and in accordance with training.

Sacramento Police Officers were called to the location after a citizen witnessed Clark breaking out car windows. The Sheriff ’s helicopter arrived and located Clark breaking out the sliding glass door of a back yard.

Clark then turned on the officers, and in a dark back yard, took a shooting stance and pointed an object at the police officers. The police officers perceived the object as a gun. They perceived this as a deadly threat and fired on Clark to save their own lives.

It is clear from the video that they truly believed that Clark had a gun. One officer shouted “gun, gun, gun” to alert his partner of the threat. After the shooting, they checked each other for injuries, thinking that their partner had been shot.

These officers reacted to the threat as they perceived it. As such, their actions are legally justified. We can and should continue to review our policies, procedures and training to ensure they match the best practices of law enforcement and the expectations of our community at large.

Our concern and focus in this tragic event should be on those policies and not on the actions of these two officers who were following their training and acting within those policies.