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posted by janrinok on Tuesday April 03 2018, @11:28AM   Printer-friendly
from the protect-and-serve dept.

Unarmed Man in His Backyard Shot From Behind 7 Times By Cops

The World Socialist Web Site reports

On Friday [March 30], the results of an independent autopsy requested by Stephon Clark's family were released to the public, confirming that police shot the unarmed 22-year-old African-American man seven times in the back and side amid a volley of gunfire in his grandparents' backyard.

The incident began when two police officers responding to a report of someone breaking car windows confronted Clark on March 18. Body camera footage shows that, without identifying themselves, police demanded Clark put his hands up and chased him into his grandparents' backyard. At that point, one of the officers yelled "Gun!" and the two fired 20 shots at Clark, who was holding his cell phone in one hand.

The officers, identified as Terrence Mercadel and Jared Robinet, stood pointing their guns at Clark's corpse for several minutes until backup arrived, then handcuffed his body and made a perfunctory attempt to resuscitate Clark before pronouncing him dead. The officers then turned off their microphones for several minutes, presumably to get their stories straight off the record.

Autopsy results released by a private medical examiner hired by the family's attorney show that [the bullets of] Mercadel and Robinet [hit] Clark a total of eight times. Dr. Bennet Omalu's analysis found that Clark was shot four times in the lower back, twice in the neck, once under an armpit, and once in the front of his thigh.

"You could reasonably conclude that he received seven gunshot wounds from his back", Dr. Omalu told a press conference Friday adding that any one of those would have been fatal on its own. The doctor described extensive damage to Clark's body from the torrent of bullets, which resulted in a collapsed lung and a shattered vertebra.

Dr. Omalu also told reporters that Clark did not die immediately from his injuries but lived another three to 10 minutes after he was shot. He noted that, while it is impossible to say whether Clark would have survived had he received medical attention sooner, "every minute you wait decreases probability of survival." According to video released by the Sacramento Police Department, six minutes elapsed between the firing of the final bullet and the time CPR was administered to Clark's dead body.

The results further discredit the police narrative that Mercadel and Robinet believed Clark posed a danger to their safety and was moving in a menacing manner toward the officers when they gunned him down. In a statement, Clark family attorney Benjamin Crump wrote: "These findings from the independent autopsy contradict the police narrative that we've been told. This independent autopsy affirms that Stephon was not a threat to police and was slain in another senseless police killing under increasingly questionable circumstances."

Body Cam Video of Alton Sterling Killing Released; Officer Sacked

CBC reports

The videos, released Friday as Baton Rouge's police chief announced the firing of the white officer who shot Sterling six times, came days after the state attorney general declined to bring criminal charges against the two officers involved in the incident.


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  • (Score: 3, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 03 2018, @12:03PM (8 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 03 2018, @12:03PM (#661911)

    The Center for American Progress reports

    At a vigil for Stephon Clark, a Sacramento County Sheriff's Department vehicle struck a protester Saturday night March 31 and sped away from the scene [thinkprogress.org]

    Video shot by a legal observer shows marchers filtering past and between a pair of SCSD vehicles as one of the drivers tells them to back away from his car via loudspeaker. The first vehicle pulls out of the crowd cleanly, but the second driver accelerates toward a pair of marchers who were crossing between the cars and moving out of the second driver's way. He accelerates swiftly and strikes a woman, knocking her to the ground.

    The woman, Wanda Cleveland, was taken to a nearby hospital by city firefighters later. She was treated for bruises on her head and arm and released later that night.

    "He never even stopped. It was a hit and run", Cleveland reportedly said. "If I did that I'd be charged." [sacbee.com]

    The video, [youtube.com] which is jarring to watch, conjures memories of the fatal ramming of protesters by a white supremacist driver in Charlottesville, Virginia, last August, among other incidents.

    -- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]

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  • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 03 2018, @12:48PM (7 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 03 2018, @12:48PM (#661918)

    In America the great cops have right of way.
    Obviously some people haven't learnt this yet

    • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday April 03 2018, @02:24PM (1 child)

      by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday April 03 2018, @02:24PM (#661953) Journal

      Grate cops have to wait for BMWs which always have the right of way. Even other BMWs have to wait for a BMW driver who always has the right of way. Even pedestrians must yield to BMWs. And emergency vehicles must yield.

      --
      People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
      • (Score: 1) by nitehawk214 on Tuesday April 03 2018, @08:28PM

        by nitehawk214 (1304) on Tuesday April 03 2018, @08:28PM (#662150)

        This is how you end up with BMW deadlock.

        --
        "Don't you ever miss the days when you used to be nostalgic?" -Loiosh
    • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 03 2018, @03:52PM (4 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 03 2018, @03:52PM (#662005)

      Cops with their lights on always have the right of way...you're supposed to know that if you have a drivers license...or common sense.

      • (Score: 2) by epitaxial on Tuesday April 03 2018, @07:37PM (1 child)

        by epitaxial (3165) on Tuesday April 03 2018, @07:37PM (#662105)

        They don't have the "right of way". Cops and emergency vehicles are to proceed if clear. Having lights and sirens doesn't let you blow through red lights and stop signs.

        • (Score: 2) by darkfeline on Wednesday April 04 2018, @02:56AM

          by darkfeline (1030) on Wednesday April 04 2018, @02:56AM (#662312) Homepage

          I assume it depends on the state, but in California, emergency vehicles can run red lights and stop signs. Of course, they can't "blow through" them, but they don't have to stop at all, just slow down. I don't know how that is handled in court if it ends up causing a collision.

          --
          Join the SDF Public Access UNIX System today!
      • (Score: 2) by rleigh on Tuesday April 03 2018, @08:11PM (1 child)

        by rleigh (4887) on Tuesday April 03 2018, @08:11PM (#662138) Homepage

        Seriously? No. The police have exactly the same rights as you do; they are civilians and subject to exactly the same laws. It's the right thing to do to let the emergency services past when they use their lights and/or sirens to make it clear they want to get somewhere in a hurry, to help your fellow citizens, but it's your courtesy to them, not their privilege.

        • (Score: 3, Informative) by Thexalon on Tuesday April 03 2018, @11:58PM

          by Thexalon (636) on Tuesday April 03 2018, @11:58PM (#662259)

          In the state where I learned to drive, yielding to emergency vehicles running lights and sirens was in fact the law, not merely a courtesy.

          My sister drove ambulances for a while, though, and was pals with the folks over at the sheriff's department. There were rules she had to follow when running lights and sirens, and it doesn't give you carte blanche to just ram pedestrians and speed off.

          --
          The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.