Stephon Clark's family sues Sacramento and 2 police officers over fatal shooting

The complaint, filed in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California, names the two officers — Terrence Mercadal and Jared Robinet — as well as the city of Sacramento as defendants. It seeks at least $20 million in damages and was filed on behalf of Clark’s two sons, his parents and his grandparents.

According to the 31-page lawsuit, the officers failed to identify themselves as police or issue verbal warnings about their intent to use deadly force before firing 20 times at Clark, who was killed in his grandmother’s backyard and was later found to have been holding a cellphone, but no gun. It also faults the officers for having deprived Clark of lifesaving medical care.

During the encounter, Clark’s civil rights were violated in several ways, his family’s lawyers argued. “There were other reasonable options available other than shooting and killing” Clark, the complaint said.

“This family deserves answers and full transparency from the officers, the city and the Sacramento Police Department on the unjustified use of excessive and lethal force that killed Stephon Clark and robbed his children of a future with their father,” Brian Panish, a lawyer for Clark’s children, said in a statement.

Both California’s attorney general, Xavier Becerra, and the Sacramento County district attorney’s office have said they would review any criminal aspects of the case. In a statement released Monday, the district attorney’s office said it had received a “voluminous investigative report” about the shooting from the Sacramento Police Department on Oct. 25. Then, this month, the office said it had “received further substantial investigative reports and related materials” from investigators with the state’s Office of the Attorney General.

“Our timeline for completion of our review has thus been delayed as we process the supplemental materials,” the district attorney’s statement said. “We will take whatever time is needed to ensure a fair, thorough, and accurate review of this matter.”

Responding on behalf of the city, Susana Alcala-Wood, the Sacramento city attorney, declined to comment “out of deference to the judicial process and because this is a matter of active litigation.”

The Sacramento Police Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment and it did not appear as if the police have publicly identified the officers involved in the shooting. The Sacramento Police Officers Association also did not immediately respond to a call seeking comment. Attempts to reach Mercadal and Robinet were not immediately successful; it is not clear if the men have obtained lawyers.

Clark’s encounter with the police began on the evening of March 18 when two Sacramento police officers were dispatched to investigate a complaint about someone breaking car windows.

With the apparent guidance from a sheriff’s helicopter, the city police officers soon spotted Clark, who they said ran from them. They followed him into the backyard and ordered him to show his hands, police video shows. Seconds later, in the dark, one officer shouted, “gun, gun, gun, gun!” and the police opened fire. The police said later that the officers believed Clark had a weapon and opened fire “fearing for their lives.”

The officers looked for a gun but found only a cellphone. In addition, the two officers involved in the shooting muted the audio feeds to their body cameras. One of the officers was black and the other was white; both were later placed on paid administrative leave.

The entire episode lasted about 10 minutes, but it roiled Sacramento for days. Protesters stormed City Hall and took to the streets, with many demanding that the two officers be fired. More broadly, critics of the police have said the shooting was just the latest demonstration that the authorities across the country treat black residents with disdain. In recent years, police shootings of black men — including Alton B. Sterling in 2016, Walter L. Scott in 2015 and Michael Brown in 2014 — have been caught on camera and raised nationwide concern about structural racism, police training and use-of-force protocols.

“We are filing a civil action today because nothing will change in America until the wrongful death of a black man is met with requisite justice, because justice equals respect — not only for Stephon, but for all black people,” said Ben Crump, a lawyer for Clark’s family.

An autopsy commissioned by Clark’s family showed that he was struck eight times, mostly in his back. However, the official autopsy report released weeks later by the Sacramento County coroner’s office said Clark was hit by only seven bullets; and although the county report found that three of the bullets entered on the right side of Clark’s back, the forensic pathologist whom Sacramento officials asked to review the autopsy said the apparent sequence of the bullets did “not support the assertion that Clark was shot primarily from behind.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

Stephon Clark's family sues Sacramento and 2 police officers over fatal shooting

Lawyers for the family of Stephon Clark, the unarmed black man who was fatally shot in March by Sacramento police officers, filed a wrongful-death lawsuit Monday alleging that the officers who fired had racially profiled the 22-year-old and used excessive force.

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