SACRAMENTO, California -- The Sacramento Police Department have released two body camera videos and one helicopter video from the night officers shot and killed 22-year-old Stephon Clark in the backyard of his grandmother’s home in Sacramento.
Two officers say Clark matched the description of someone reported to be breaking into vehicles in the neighborhood.
They yelled for Clark to show his hands, then shouted "gun, gun, gun" moments before fatally shooting him with 20 shots, according to police.
Police discovered that Clark was holding an iPhone, not a gun.
“It looked like a gun from our perspective," an officer can be heard saying in the body camera footage.
After backup arrived, the officers who fired were taken to the street, where someone says "Hey mute," and the audio cuts out. The video continues without sound for about two minutes as the officers talk.
The shooting has ignited questions by relatives, activists and others after it turned out he was holding only a cellphone.
Black Lives Matter Sacramento called it a police murder and demanded answers. City Councilman Larry Carr decried the loss of life and said police must provide timely information. Rev. Al Sharpton has pledged his support for Clark's family and said he would be in California to help them fight for justice, according to a statement from his organization.
Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg said appropriate questions have been raised about the protocols for using force and rendering emergency aid during police shootings and they must be answered in the investigation.
"Based on the videos alone, I cannot second guess the split-second decisions of our officers,” Steinberg said in a statement. "The investigation must be completed. We need more information in addition to the video before we can render any final conclusions."
Clark was engaged and the father of his fiancee’s two sons, ages 1 and 3.
He routinely helped care for his grandparents at their home in south Sacramento, his cousin, Sonia Lewis, told Capitol Public Radio .
"He was at the wrong place at the wrong time in his own backyard?" Clark's grandmother, Sequita Thompson, told The Sacramento Bee . "C'mon now, they didn't have to do that."
Stephon’s brother, Stevante Clark, told HLN that his priority right now wasn't a possible lawsuit or body camera footage, but focusing on Clark's two young children.
"I just want to make sure his kids go to school, my mom is good, and he gets buried in a way where we don't have to worry -- the nicest funeral," he said.
"They said he had a gun. Then they said he had a crowbar. Then they said he had a toolbar. Now I'm asking you, you've got a nice job, you sound pretty smart. What is a toolbar?" he said.
