Stephon Clark Protesters Converge on Sacramento City Council Meeting

Update: Wednesday, March 6, 12:45 p.m.: Protesters, furious over the lack of criminal charges against two officers who shot and killed 22-year-old Stephon Clark in March 2018, converged on a Sacramento City Council meeting Tuesday night. People at the meeting said that police were overly aggressive during protests on Monday night, pushing and sometimes striking protesters and ramming them with bikes.

Sacramento County District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert's announcement Saturday that her office wouldn't file charges against the officers prompted the Monday night protests in the city's affluent East Sacramento neighborhood, in which 84 people were arrested, including clergy members. At least three reporters were detained and released.

The City Council meeting grew tense as people shared their reactions to the arrests. Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg shut the meeting down for about 15 minutes amid shouting. The meeting then resumed and finally ended after about four hours.

Protester Khaya Osborne warned the council that people of color feel like they’ve been put in a cage. She said that if things don’t change, people will stop thinking about the consequences of their actions.

“You better hope and pray that the black community of Sacramento, Stockton, San Francisco, Chicago, New York, Brooklyn, Baltimore, does not forget about consequences,” Osborne said.

Sadalia King assailed the actions of police during the Monday night protests.

"You cannot allow one group of people to be harmed and allow that to stand," King said. "How can you not care about people? I don't understand it."

Others called for Officers Terrence Mercadal and Jared Robinet, who killed Clark on March 18, 2018, to be removed from the force.

"Firing these officers isn't just about saying, OK, we just want to see you guys do something finally," protester Ryan McClinton said. "No, this is public safety. Our community is telling you we don't feel safe with these officers on the street. I need you guys to hear this and understand it deeply."

Original post, Tuesday, March 5:

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra said Tuesday he will not file criminal charges against the Sacramento police officers who shot and killed 22-year-old Stephon Clark a year ago, echoing the Sacramento County district attorney’s decision announced on Saturday.

"No criminal charges against the officers in this shooting can be sustained," Becerra said during a press conference in which he outlined the results of the California Department of Justice's independent criminal investigation.

Becerra noted, in releasing the results, that the DOJ did not conduct a review of the Sacramento County district attorney's investigation that led to the decision not to charge the officers involved.

He added that he met with Clark's mother, SeQuette Clark, earlier Tuesday. "Our investigation may be over but our commitment to the community in repairing trust between the police and citizens goes on."

"I know that this is not how Stephon Clark's loved ones wanted his story to end," Becerra said. "This investigative report reflects the story my team and I wrote, based on the facts we had before us. We did it by the book, and it will be open and transparent for you to read."

Read the report below:

Sacramento County District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert announced Saturday the officers would not face criminal charges in the March 18, 2018, shooting, saying the use of lethal force by Terrence Mercadal and Jared Robinet was lawful.

"We must recognize that they are often forced to make split-second decisions and we must recognize that they are under tense, uncertain and rapidly evolving circumstances," Schubert said.

Becerra said during the press conference that the independent investigation found the following: Clark had committed an unlawful act of breaking car windows and a neighbor's sliding-glass door; he did not heed officers' orders; at the time of the shooting Clark was advancing toward the officers; in video footage, a bright light could be seen near or on Clark; officers fired when they saw Clark advancing and stopped firing when he fell to the ground.

Watch the press conference below:

Becerra pointed to the legal standard that, for a homicide to be justified, the person who committed the homicide had to believe he or she was in imminent danger of being killed or suffering major bodily injury.

The conclusion of the 10-page report outlines the reasoning not to pursue criminal charges:

In sum, we found the most critical evidence to be the following: (1) the officers encountered a rapidly developing situation in which they were pursuing a suspect — Stephon Clark — who had broken the rear sliding glass door of the neighboring residence, and who refused an officer’s multiple commands to stop and show his hands; (2) Clark had an object in his hands which we now know to have been a cell phone, and during the encounter the officers repeated spontaneous shouts of “gun”; and (3) at the time of the shooting, Clark had moved from behind the picnic table where he was first seen and advanced to a point within 16 feet from the officers, as established by the STAR (Sheriff’s Tactical Air Resource) video, the body camera footage, and the crime scene measurements.

Now the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the FBI will examine whether the shooting involved violations of Clark’s federal civil rights, according to a joint statement from the agencies. A spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office said it is standard practice to wait until local law enforcement has finished its investigation.

"That examination will involve a review of the substance and results of the state and local investigations, and any additional investigative steps, if warranted,” the joint statement said.

Clark's family and black community leaders had urged Becerra to reach a different conclusion.

"I would like for the attorney general to prosecute the officers," his brother, Stevante Clark, said Sunday. "I want justice and accountability."

Background on the Shooting

The officers who shot Clark were responding to reports of a man breaking into cars in a South Sacramento neighborhood. A sheriff's department helicopter spotted the suspect in a backyard and reported that he broke a sliding glass door on a house before he ran into a neighboring backyard — behind his grandparents' home.

The officers confronted Clark there at approximately 9:30 p.m. One of them said, “Show me your hands! ... Gun, gun, gun!” just before both officers fired a total of 20 rounds at Clark.

Clark's family, including his two sons, his parents and his grandparents, filed a wrongful death lawsuit in January seeking more than $20 million from the city, Mercadal and Robinet, alleging that the officers used excessive force and that Clark was a victim of racial profiling.

One of the officers who shot Clark is black and the other is white, police said.

Passions became more inflamed by conflicting autopsy results.

Police said Clark was facing officers when he was killed, moving forward with his arms extended and an object in his hands. The object was a cellphone.

Police video of the shooting does not clearly capture all that happened after Clark ran into his grandmother's backyard.

The official Sacramento County coroner's report, released in early May 2018, contradicted some of the medical findings and most of the opinions of a private forensic pathologist hired by Clark's family, who announced to a bank of news reporters that the unarmed black man wasn't facing the officers when they opened fire.

KQED's Sonja Hutson, Katie Orr and Scott Shafer, and the Associated Press contributed to this report.