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As national attention around the death of Stephon Clark grows, his family is demanding to know why Sacramento police shot and killed the young unarmed black man.
“They didn’t have to kill him like that,” his grandmother Sequita Thompson said in an emotional speech on Monday. “They didn’t have to shoot him this many times. Why didn’t you just shoot him in the arm, shoot him in the leg, send the dogs, send a Taser. Why? Why? Y’all didn’t have to do that.”
She begged to “please give us justice.”
The city’s mayor Darrell Steinberg also weighed in, saying that Clark’s death was “plain wrong.”
“It’s wrong because a 22-year-old man should not die in that way,” he added.
Clark, a father of two, died after two officers shot at him 20 times. The officers later said they thought he was armed with a gun, which turned out to be just a cellphone.
Body camera footage released last week shows the officers trailing Clark through his neighborhood until he reached his home.
“Hey, show me your hands!” one of the officers yelled. “Gun! Gun, gun, gun!”
Benjamin Crump, the attorney representing Clark’s family, said Monday that they’re planning an independent autopsy.
“No family should have to endure this pain and suffering as they try to seek answers for an execution of their loved one who is only holding a cell phone,” he said.
Both the Boston Celtics and the Sacramento Kings dressed in black Sunday night when the two NBA teams faced off, in a show of support.
“As NBA players and people of influence, we have to continue to speak up about things and continue to serve as part of change,” Celtics player Jaylen Brown said.
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