Stephon Clark

Stephon Clark (born Stephan Alonzo-Clark, August 10, 1995 – March 18, 2018) an African American, graduated from Sacramento High School in 2013, where he was on the football team.

He was 22 years old at the time he was killed.

According to The Los Angeles Times, Clark lived in a "tough neighborhood" characterized by tense relations with the Sacramento Police Department.

His older brother, Stevante Clark, told KOVR that he and Stephon had come from "underprivileged, broken homes".

Their 16-year-old brother was killed in a shooting in 2006.

Stephon had been released from county jail about a month before the shooting and was staying with his grandparents on and off.

His brother said, "He was arrested before, but he's been different lately. He really changed his life."

Sacramento County court records show that Clark had a history of convictions for robbery, domestic abuse, and a prostitution-related offense.

At the time of his death he was on probation for a 2014 robbery conviction.A year later in 2015 Clark was arrested for prostituting women.

He violated probation in December 2015 for that case.

According to the investigation, Clark had searched online for ways to commit suicide.

A toxicology report also released by police found traces of cocaine, cannabis, and codeine in Clark's system.

Codeine and hydrocodone were found in Clark's urine.

Multiple leaders in the community opined that Clark's criminal record was immaterial to his death.

The Sacramento Police Department stated that on Sunday, March 18 at 9:18 p.m., two officers responded to a 9-1-1 call that an individual was breaking car windows.

In a media release after the shooting, police stated that they had been looking for a suspect hiding in a backyard.

They said the suspect was a thin black man, 6 ft in height, wearing dark pants and a black hooded sweatshirt.

A sheriff's helicopter spotted a man at 9:25 p.m., in a nearby backyard and told officers on the ground that he had shattered a window using a tool bar, run to the front of that house, and then looked in an adjacent car.

Officers on the ground entered the front yard of Clark's grandmother's home, and saw Clark next to the home.

Vance Chandler, the Sacramento Police Department spokesman, said that Clark was the same man who had been breaking windows, and was tracked by police in helicopters.

Chandler said that when Clark was confronted and ordered to stop and show his hands, Clark fled to the back of the property.

Police body camera footage from both of the officers who shot Clark recorded the incident, though the footage is dark and shaky.

In the videos, officers spot Clark in his grandmother's driveway and shout "Hey, show me your hands. Stop. Stop."

The video shows that the officers chased Clark into the backyard and an officer yells, "Show me your hands! Gun!"

About three seconds elapse and then the officer yells, "Show me your hands! Gun, gun, gun", before shooting Clark.

According to the police, before being shot, Clark turned and held an object that he "extended in front of him" while he moved towards the officers.

The officers said they believed that Clark was pointing a gun at them.

The police stated that the officers feared for their safety, and at 9:26 p.m., fired 20 rounds, hitting Clark multiple times.

According to an independent autopsy, Clark was shot eight times, including six times in the back.

The report found that one of the bullets to strike Clark from the front was likely fired while he was already on the ground.

Body-cam footage shows that after shooting him, the officers continued to yell at him as one shined a flashlight at him and they kept their guns aimed at him.

In the late evening of March 18, 2018, Stephon Clark, a 22-year-old African-American man, was shot and killed in Meadowview, Sacramento, California by Terrence Mercadal and Jared Robinet, two officers of the Sacramento Police Department in the backyard of his grandmother's house while he had a phone in his hand.

The encounter was filmed by police video cameras and by a Sacramento County Sheriff's Department helicopter which was involved in observing Clark on the ground and in directing ground officers to the point at which the shooting took place.

The officers stated that they shot Clark, firing 20 rounds, believing that he had pointed a gun at them.

Police found only a cell phone on him.

While the Sacramento County Coroner's autopsy report concluded that Clark was shot seven times, including three shots to the right side of the back, the pathologist hired by the Clark family stated that Clark was shot eight times, including six times in the back.

The shooting caused large protests in Sacramento, and Clark's family members have rejected the initial police description of the events leading to Clark's death.

The Sacramento Police Department placed the officers on paid administrative leave and opened a use of force investigation.

Police have stated they are confident that Clark was the suspect responsible for breaking windows in the area prior to the encounter.

On March 2, 2019, the Sacramento County district attorney announced that the Sacramento police officers who killed Clark would not be charged and that they had probable cause to stop Clark and were legally justified in the use of deadly force.