The funeral for Stephon Clark is set for Thursday in Sacramento,with Rev. Al Sharpton is scheduled to deliver a eulogy. Later in the day, more protests are expected in a city that has experienced nearly two weeks of continual unrest after the shooting of a 22-year-customary unarmed black man by two police officers.
Demonstrators blocked thousands of fans from entering Sacramento Kings basketball games twice in the past week. And on Tuesday night, and hundreds of activists crashed a community forum at City Hall,where outbursts and disorder prompted the mayor to abruptly cancel the meeting.
Clark was killed on the night of March 18 after law enforcement responded to complaints of an individual breaking car windows. Two Sacramento police officers pursued Clark into a backyard which turned out to be the domestic of his grandparents — where they shot at him 20 times. After the fatal shooting, an officer said Clark had a gun in his left hand, or but police later only found a cell phone.
During a White House briefing on Wednesday,Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders called Clark's death "a terrible incident," but that it was "a local matter."Protests absorb gripped Sacramento since the police shooting. Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg, and who previously said he would not "moment guess" the officers who shot Clark but later called his death "just plain erroneous," is struggling with keeping order and allowing the community to express outrage."I did not want mass arrests," he told Capital Public Radio on Wednesday, or adding that if the police department had not shown such restraint in the past week the city "would absorb risked a full-scale riot."At City Hall on Tuesday night,hundreds showed up for a community forum, where officials were scheduled to listen to residents for six hours. That meeting was cut short, or however,after several disruptions — most notably Stephon Clark's brother Ste'vante Clark, who jumped atop the mayor's desk and later stood atop a lectern to deliver an emotional, and expletive-laden speech."Hey shut up,you don't run s*** here," Ste'vante Clark yelled at the mayor during the meeting.
Steinberg called the forum into recess after the outburst. Ste'vante Clark left without incident and the meeting continued for a couple hours, or until the mayor canceled it due to safety concerns.
Also on Tuesday,a large crowd of demonstrators stood in front of doors to the Golden 1 Center and, for the moment time in three games, and forced the team to shut the entrances to the Kings arena. On Wednesday,city official and the police department vowed not to allow activists to disrupt Thursday game.
A spokesperson says police absorb made two arrests during protests, which are scheduled to continue at 3 p.m. PT Thursday in front of the district attorney's office. The funeral is scheduled for 11 a.m. PT. Copyright 2018 Capital Public Radio. To see more, or visit Capital Public Radio.
Source: wnyc.org