Police in Sacramento, the state capital, released video footage late on Wednesday of the shooting of Stephon Clark, 22, on Sunday night, which police said showed him holding an object that was later found to be a cell phone.
More than 200 demonstrators gathered on Thursday to denounce the shooting, in a protest organized by the Black Lives Matter movement. Organisers described the shooting death of black people by police as disturbingly common.
“Like any compassionate person, I was horrified by the death of a young Sacramento man who we later found out had two kids,” Mayor Darrell Steinberg said at a news conference.
“What was my reaction? It was horrible,” he added.
Protesters marched into the city hall lobby on Thursday shouting, “It’s a phone, not a gun” and demanded a meeting with the police chief.
“I have four grandbabies who are black and I don’t want them taken,” said protester Tami Collins, 47, who is white.
A series of killings of unarmed black men by police across the United Stated since 2014 has generated protests and put law enforcement agencies under scrutiny over their use of lethal force.
In Sacramento, the police said in a statement that the shooting occurred when officers responded to a report that someone had broken car windows in a residential area. Police later found at least three damaged vehicles.
Deputies in a Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department helicopter saw a suspect shatter the sliding glass door of a house and then jump a fence to enter the yard of another house, police said.
Police released infrared video from the helicopter that showed the man hop the fence.
Other video from police body cameras shows two officers run after Clark with their flashlights and turn the corner of the house to face him in the backyard, yelling: “Show me your hands” and “gun” before they shoot him.
The officers had seen Clark “advance forward with his arms extended and holding an object,” which they believed was a gun, before they opened fire 20 times, police said.
Officers then waited five minutes, until backup arrived, before approaching Clark to help him, police said.
After the shooting, investigators found a cellphone near Clark but no firearm, police said.
The mayor said the city will review police protocol for aiding a person who is lying still.
The shooting was in the backyard of Clark’s grandparents home, where he had been staying, according to the Sacramento Bee newspaper, which spoke to Clark’s relatives.
The Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office is investigating the shooting.
Body camera and surveillance helicopter footage released late Wednesday shows how police chased and then fired 20 rounds at Stephon Clark, killing him on the spot.
Following an uproar in the case, the Sacramento Police Department said it "recognizes the significance of this incident and the impact it has on our community," and that it was "committed to providing timely information and communicating openly with our community."
The incident was triggered by an emergency 911 phone call late Sunday stating that a man was smashing car windows in the neighborhood.
Clark, 22, appeared to fit the suspect's profile, and police chased after him, backed by a helicopter equipped with infrared cameras.
The videos caught by the helicopter and by the officer's body cameras showed Clark running through the neighborhood, then entering the backyard of his grandparents' home, where he lived.
The officers then burst into the backyard with their weapons drawn and confront Clark, shouting out: "Show me your hands!" followed soon after by "Gun, gun, gun!"
The officers opened fire, with each shot appearing as a flash on the helicopter's infrared footage.
"At the time of the shooting, the officers believed the suspect was pointing a firearm at them," Sacramento police said in a statement.
"After an exhaustive search, scene investigators did not locate any firearms. The only items found near the suspect was a cellphone."
Hearing the gunshots, Clark's grandparents called 911, without realizing that police were shooting.
"They finally told me, hours later, that there was a victim dead in my backyard," Sequita Thompson told FOX40 television.
Thompson ignored police orders to refrain from looking out the window -- and was horrified that the man who was shot dead was her grandson.
"He was right there, dead," she said. "And I told the officers, 'You guys are murderers, murderers.'"
Thompson later told The Sacramento Bee newspaper: "He was at the wrong place at the wrong time in his own backyard?
"C'mon now, they didn't have to do that."
The officers involved in the shooting were put on leave pending an investigation.
The latest shooting has revived a recurring debate over police abuses against African Americans, who account for an overwhelming share of the number of suspects killed by law enforcement each year.
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