Up Next

Stephon Clark

A timeline of Stephon Clark’s death at the hands of Sacramento police and the aftermath

Clark was killed in his grandparents’ backyard by officers who fired at him 20 times

Up Next From Sports

    34A89E82-88BD-46C3-B6FC-006243F076D5
    Rhiannon Walker By @InstantRHIplay

    The Sacramento Kings are saying Stephon Clark’s name. The Kings and Boston Celtics decided they weren’t just going to shut up and dribble or stick to sports.

    Before Sunday’s game, the Kings released a video with players from both teams calling for accountability and bringing wider awareness to Clark’s death when two Sacramento, California, police officers fired 20 shots at him and killed him in his grandparents’ backyard on March 18.

    During warmups, the Celtics and Kings wore shirts with #StephonClark on the back and “Accountability. We Are One” on the front.

    This comes days after former Sacramento star DeMarcus Cousins offered to cover Clark’s funeral costs. Clark’s death also came days before the March for Our Lives rally calling for gun reform in the United States, which grassroots and Black Lives Matter activists have been calling for for years.

    Clark was at his grandparents’ home on March 18 when two Sacramento police officers rolled up on him while doing a canvass of the neighborhood for a man who was breaking car windows.

    The two officers gave Clark four seconds to comply with their commands before they fired 20 shots, killing him in the backyard. A Sacramento sheriff said that Clark was armed with a crowbar.

    Do you know what they found when they rolled Clark’s limp body over? A cellphone. There was no weapon, and Clark was on his stomach when police finally did attend to him. He was 22 and the father of two little boys.

    On March 22, protesters blocked fans from entering Golden 1 Center for the Kings’ game against the Atlanta Hawks, prompting the Kings to lock the doors and tell fans who were outside to go home. The Kings won, 105-90, in the delayed game in front of a small crowd.

    This is a timeline of the news surrounding Clark.

    March 19

    March 20

    Before the video was released, this was the Sacramento police’s explanation of what transpired on March 18: “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.”

    Media members from around the country begin to dive into Clark’s story. Prominent Black Lives Matter voices start raising awareness about Clark’s final day.

    March 21

    Local news channels begin talking to Clark’s wife and his grandmother, Sequita Thompson, who didn’t even realize he was dead until she looked into her backyard and saw his lifeless body.

    “He was at the wrong place at the wrong time in his own backyard?” she asked.

    At 6:53 p.m., the Sacramento Police Department released the audio and video of the shooting.

    The officers in the video justified initiating the shooting in the body camera video by screaming Clark “had a gun” seven seconds into barging into the backyard. Four seconds later, the officers started shooting.

    In the immediate aftermath, the pair took the time to ask how the other was doing. “Are you hit?” one asked. “No, I’m good,” the other responded as Clark lay motionless on his grandmother’s patio.

    There was no other way to handle the situation other than ending Clark’s life? Only a month ago, we watched Nikolas Cruz, who did have a gun and killed 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, be tackled, apprehended alive and escorted out of the situation.

    Police officers continued to shout at Clark’s motionless body that they would not administer aid to him until he “got rid of his weapon.” And they called for backup to approach his limp body and to apply handcuffs to him before they started CPR. The officers are on paid administrative leave, by the way.

    March 22

    Of the unarmed people killed by police in 2017, 35 percent of those people were black. As The Washington Post reports, Clark is the fifth black man killed by Sacramento Police Department officers since 2015. That’s out of six people.

    Clark’s brother, cousin and hundreds more marched in a peaceful protest to the Kings’ Golden 1 Center. Protesters made a human chain around the entrance to the arena, and fans were forced to go home.

    To be clear, protests are not supposed to be convenient. People complaining about not being able to attend a basketball game involving a team that has two times as many losses as wins are telling on themselves. The owner of the team that those folks were planning to see believes it’s his team’s duty to help heal the community and understands sports is in no way more important than someone who lost his life at the hands of a system that has repeatedly shown how little it cares about black and brown people.

    March 23

    MARCH 25

    This post will be updated as more information about Clark comes out, and as athletes and celebrities speak out on the matter.

    Rhiannon Walker is an associate editor at The Undefeated. She is a drinker of Sassy Cow Creamery chocolate milk, an owner of an extensive Disney VHS collection, and she might have a heart attack if Frank Ocean doesn't drop his second album.

    This Story Tagged: NBA Black Lives Matter Police Misconduct Sacramento Police Department Stephon Clark