During a press conference Saturday, Sacramento County District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert announced that police officers Terrance Mercadal and Jared Robinet would not be held accountable for the March 18, 2018, state-sanctioned fatal shooting of Stephon Clark, 22, repeating over and over that her office was tasked with deciding if a crime had been committed and ultimately determined that it had not.
Schubert claims her office looked at an overabundance of evidence, including but not limited to: surveillance, body camera footage, analysis of Clark’s phone, witness statements, and medical examiners reports and decided that police officers committed no crime when they fired upwards of 20 shots at Stephon Clark as he stood in his grandparents’ yard.
Schubert spent over 90 minutes justifying the state execution of Stephon Clark. He smashed three car windows—cars from which nothing was taken—and jumped a fence into his grandparents’ yard. He was also allegedly under the influence of several substances and “despondent” over a domestic violence dispute with the mother of his children.
These things—not state violence, racist presumptions, and fear of Black bodies—are what makes Stephon Clark’s death justified, according to Schubert.
Schubert did not share whether or not the officers were under the influence of any substances or despondent over things in their own lives when they fired 20 shots at Stephon Clark.
Further, Schubert said that based on legal analysis, officers Robinet and Mercadel had a right to detain Clark and that they used lawful force when they killed him.
This story is developing…
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