Two California police officers who killed Stephon Clark, an unarmed black man who was fatally shot in his grandmother's backyard last year, will not face criminal charges, Sacramento County District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert said Saturday.
Schubert described a young man going through a tumultuous time in his life, facing jail time after being accused of assaulting his girlfriend and mother of his children days earlier. She said toxicology reports showed Clark had Xanax and alcohol in his system and that he had researched ways to commit suicide before his encounter with the officers.
"Was a crime committed?" Schubert told reporters. "There is no question a human being died. ... The answer to that question is no and, as a result, there was no criminal liability."
Schubert would not characterize what happened as a "suicide by cop" but said "many things were weighing heavily" on Clark's mind at the time of the shooting.
Clark was unarmed when he was shot seven times, including three times in the back, according to an autopsy released by the Sacramento County Coroner's office. An independent autopsy found that Clark was shot eight times, with six of those wounds in his back, according a forensic pathologist retained by Clark's family.
The case became a symbol of strained relations between the police and the community as well as racial tensions in the state capital.
Jamilia Land, a friend of Clark's family and member of CA Families United for Justice, in a statement said no prosecutor's "ruling can change the most important fact -- Stephon should be alive."
"Stephon was unarmed and in no way a threat. Instead, they shot 20 times and hit Stephon at least 8 times. Even then, they did not call for medical care even though he was bleeding profusely. Now the Sacramento District Attorney says it's unjust to charge these officers with Stephon's murder—where is Stephon's justice?"
Authorities said the two Sacramento officers who shot Clark were responding to a report that a man had broken car windows and was hiding in a backyard. Police chased the man -- later identified as Clark -- who hopped a fence into his grandmother's property. He was shot in her backyard on the night of March 18, 2018.
Schubert, who opened her news conference with an apology to the Clark family, said she met with his mother Saturday morning.
The prosecutor went through a lengthy presentation involving body worn cameras, helicopter surveillance video and photos. Clark vandalized three cars, moved to a backyard and broke a sliding glass door to a room where an 89-year-old man was watching television, and then jumped to another yard.
Directed to Clark's location by the sheriff's helicopter, the officers chased Clark to a backyard.
"Hey, show me your hands," the lead officer said. "Stop. Stop."
Schubert said, "Both (officers) describe that Mr. Clark was sanding with his arms extended in a shooing stance. Both officers believed he was pointing a gun at them."
One officer saw a spark that he thought was a muzzle flash from a gun, she said. The other thought the flash was light reflecting off a gun.
"Show me your hands," one officers said, breathing heavily. "Gun. Gun."
Clark was about 30 feet away behind a picnic table when the officers opened fire, the prosecutor said.
After the shooting, protests erupted for several days in Sacramento as tempers flared. Frustrated residents and Black Lives Matter activists urged accountability for the shooting. At one point, protesters blocked the entrance to the Golden 1 Center, where the Sacramento Kings play, forcing them to play a game against the Atlanta Hawks in a nearly empty arena.
Police said the officers who fired at Clark believed he was pointing a gun at them. But investigators determined Clark was actually carrying a cell phone.
Clark's family last month filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the officers involved and the city of Sacramento.
The federal lawsuit alleges the young man was racially profiled, and the officers used excessive force in the shooting incident. The two officers failed to identify themselves or issue a verbal warning before firing approximately 20 shots, the suit said. The lawsuit also alleges the officers did not get him medical attention immediately after the shooting.
Mayor Darrell Steinberg devoted much of his 2019 "State of the City" speech to the shooting and apologized to Clark's family and the community, CNN affiliate KOVR reported.
"How do I as your Mayor give voice to the pain that is so real and so raw in our community?" Steinberg asked.
He also acknowledged the disappointment among many residents should prosecutors decide to not charge the officers.
"If they decide not to bring criminal charges based on the existing state law, I know that there will be real anger about such a result," he said.
City officials had been meeting with residents before Saturday's announcement in hopes of preventing new protests, the station reported.
The Sacramento District Attorney's Office was reviewing whether the officers' conduct constituted a crime that could be prosecuted under state law. The California Attorney General's Office previously said it was also conducting an independent investigation.
In October, the district attorney's office said it received "the voluminous investigative report and related materials" about the shooting from Sacramento police.
Last month, the district attorney's office said prosecutors also received "substantial investigative reports and related materials" from Department of Justice investigators in the Attorney General's Office.
California Attorney General Xavier Becerra in January recommended an overhaul of force-related policies within the department. City officials welcomed the input and said they expect they will put the plan into action. Hie said an officer's response to a suspect's actions should be proportional to the nature of a threat and that he or she "exhaust all reasonably available alternatives before using deadly force."
The police department should also prohibit officers from shooting at, or from, moving vehicles, Becerra's report said.
