Autopsy of California black man shot by police fuels more protests

SACRAMENTO: About 200 demonstrators squared off with police in riot gear overnight in California´s capital and more protests were planned for Saturday after an autopsy on Stephon Clark contradicted the police account of the shooting of the unarmed black man by officers.

Waving signs and chanting Clark´s name in unison, the protesters gathered at city hall before marching into the Old Sacramento part of the city, filled with bars, restaurants and tourists.

Protesters, some with megaphones and black masks covering their faces, shouted “Shoot us down, we shut you down”, along with expletives directed at the police.

More than 80 police and California Highway Patrol officers in riot gear blocked protesters from marching onto a highway.

There were no arrests, the Sacramento Bee reported.

Clark´s death two weeks ago was the most recent in a string of fatal shootings of black men by police that have triggered protests across the United States and fueled a national debate about bias in the American criminal justice system.

Clark, a 22-year-old father of two, was gunned down in the backyard of his grandparents´ house by police responding to a report that someone was breaking windows. Police said the officers who shot at Clark 20 times feared he was holding a gun, but that he was later found to have been holding a cellphone.

Police have said he was moving towards officers in a menacing way when they fired.

The incident was captured on a body cam video released by police on Wednesday.

The latest demonstrations were touched off by a new private autopsy on Clark that showed that none of the eight bullets that hit him struck him in the front, contradicting the police version of events, a lawyer for the deceased´s family said on Friday.

Clark was shot six times in the back, once in the side and once in the leg, the autopsy found. Dr. Bennet Omalu, the forensic pathologist who conducted the independent autopsy, said at a briefing that any one of seven bullets that entered the upper half of Clark´s body could have killed him.

Benjamin Crump, an attorney for Clark´s family, said: “This independent autopsy affirms that Stephon was not a threat to police and was slain in another senseless police killing under increasingly questionable circumstances.

“The Sacramento Police Department said it would have no further comment on the case until after the release of the findings of an official autopsy by the county coroner, and a review by state and local prosecutors.

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra has said state investigators will oversee the investigation and review the police department´s procedures and practices.

On several occasions since Clark was killed, protesters have marched, held demonstrations and twice blocked fans from reaching games played by the Sacramento Kings NBA basketball team at the Golden 1 Center.

Another protest is planned for noon on Saturday and is to be led by retired Sacramento Kings basketball star Matt Barnes, a statement from the organizers of the Unity and Action rally said.