Sacramento police fatally shot an unarmed black man 20 times in his back yard, revealed through body camera footage released March 21, according to The Washington Post.
Police were responding to a 911 call about a man breaking car windows when they mistakenly believed 22-year-old Stephon Clark was armed, to discover he was actually carrying a white iPhone.
“It is an atrocity that an unarmed young man was shot at twenty times in his own backyard and shows the urgent need in these times for intervention against police misconduct. We will call for a complete and thorough investigation into this young man’s death," Rev. Al Sharpton said in a statement.
"Prior to the shooting, the involved officers saw the suspect facing them, advance forward with his arms extended, and holding an object in his hands. At the time of the shooting, the officers believed the suspect was pointing a firearm at them. After an exhaustive search, scene investigators did not locate any firearms. The only item found near the suspect was a cell phone," the Sacramento Police Department said in a news release.
The Washington Post reports:
An analysis by The Washington Post found that 987 people were killed by police last year — 68 of them unarmed. Of those unarmed victims, 30 were white, 20 were black and 13 were Hispanic, showing an overrepresentation of African Americans among the total population. Five of the remaining fatalities were of unknown or other race.
At least 230 people have been killed by police this year, according to The Post’s database on fatal force.
Read more here.
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