Stephon Clark Shot Six Times in Back - Eight Times in All - Private Autopsy Says
BY SAM STANTON AND TONY BIZJAK
Sacramento Bee
SStanton@sacbee.com
March 30, 2018 10:58 AM
Stephon Clark was shot six times in the back and eight times total by Sacramento police officers, according to a private autopsy released Friday morning by his family's legal team, a finding that may roil emotions in a city already on edge about the shooting of the unarmed black man.
The autopsy found that there were no bullet entries from the front. Instead, the review concluded that Clark was facing a house with his left side to officers when they opened fire and hit him first in the left side under the arm. The force of that round spun him around with his back to officers, and six rounds penetrated his back moving in a forward trajectory, the Clark family legal team said.
The last shot struck his left thigh area as Clark was falling or had fallen, the autopsy found.
Clark family attorney Benjamin Crump said the autopsy "affirms that Stephon was not a threat to police and was slain in another senseless police killing under increasingly questionable circumstances."
The review, conducted by prominent pathologist Dr. Bennet Omalu, the former chief medical examiner in San Joaquin County best known for his research on football-related concussions, was released at a Friday morning press conference held by Crump and other attorneys representing Clark's family.
Clark, 22, was killed March 18 after Sacramento police received reports of a car burglar in the Meadowview area. Two officers chased Clark into the backyard of his grandparents' home, where they ordered him to show his hands, then fired 20 shots at him because they believed he had a gun, according to body camera video released by police.
Clark was later found to be carrying only a cellphone.
"The proposition that he was facing the officers is inconsistent with the prevailing forensic evidence," the pathologist said a morning press conference.
“He was facing the house, with his left to the officers," Omalu said. "He wasn’t facing the officers. His left back was facing to the officers.”
Omalu said it took 3 to 10 minutes for Clark to die: "It was not an instant death." Activists and family members have criticized the two officers for waiting to render medical aid.
Neither the Sacramento Police Department nor Mayor Darrell Steinberg provided an immediate response.
Sacramento Bee
SStanton@sacbee.com
March 30, 2018 10:58 AM
Stephon Clark was shot six times in the back and eight times total by Sacramento police officers, according to a private autopsy released Friday morning by his family's legal team, a finding that may roil emotions in a city already on edge about the shooting of the unarmed black man.
The autopsy found that there were no bullet entries from the front. Instead, the review concluded that Clark was facing a house with his left side to officers when they opened fire and hit him first in the left side under the arm. The force of that round spun him around with his back to officers, and six rounds penetrated his back moving in a forward trajectory, the Clark family legal team said.
The last shot struck his left thigh area as Clark was falling or had fallen, the autopsy found.
Clark family attorney Benjamin Crump said the autopsy "affirms that Stephon was not a threat to police and was slain in another senseless police killing under increasingly questionable circumstances."
The review, conducted by prominent pathologist Dr. Bennet Omalu, the former chief medical examiner in San Joaquin County best known for his research on football-related concussions, was released at a Friday morning press conference held by Crump and other attorneys representing Clark's family.
Clark, 22, was killed March 18 after Sacramento police received reports of a car burglar in the Meadowview area. Two officers chased Clark into the backyard of his grandparents' home, where they ordered him to show his hands, then fired 20 shots at him because they believed he had a gun, according to body camera video released by police.
Clark was later found to be carrying only a cellphone.
"The proposition that he was facing the officers is inconsistent with the prevailing forensic evidence," the pathologist said a morning press conference.
“He was facing the house, with his left to the officers," Omalu said. "He wasn’t facing the officers. His left back was facing to the officers.”
Omalu said it took 3 to 10 minutes for Clark to die: "It was not an instant death." Activists and family members have criticized the two officers for waiting to render medical aid.
Neither the Sacramento Police Department nor Mayor Darrell Steinberg provided an immediate response.
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