Sacramento police released the county autopsy on Stephon Clark Tuesday, May 1,2018, a report conducted by four pathologists to correct what the county coroner said was “erroneous” information from the private one.
Sacramento, California, police released the county’s autopsy report Tuesday on the March 18 shooting of Stephon Clark, compiling findings from four different pathologists that differ from the private autopsy findings.
Coroner Kimberly Gin said in a letter to police dated Friday that she brought four pathologists into the matter “in light of the erroneous information that was released from the private autopsy.”
Among the new findings: Clark was shot seven times, not eight, the report concludes; at least three of the wounds were to his back.
A toxicology report found traces of cocaine, cannabis and codeine in Clark’s system. Codeine and hydrocodone were found in Clark’s urine.
The findings differ sharply from those presented March 30 by Dr. Bennet Omalu, a noted pathologist hired by the Clark family legal team, who determined that Clark was shot eight times, six of them in the back.
“It is clear from review of the written report and photographic documentation that Stephon Clark was struck by seven bullets, not eight as claimed by Dr. Omalu in his press conference statements and as shown on his autopsy diagram,” wrote Dr. Gregory D. Reiber, a Roseville pathologist who reviewed the county’s autopsy report at Gin’s request.
Reiber did not study Clark’s body, but relied on the county report along with diagrams, photos, body camera videos and other evidence.
Reiber’s report differed from Omalu’s about where the first shot hit Clark, as well as the direction Clark was facing in relation to the officers.
Omalu said at a March press conference that Clark was first struck in the side, and that the force of that bullet spun him around with his back to officers, leading to six rounds hitting him in the back.
Reiber disagreed, saying that the first shot to hit Clark “was most likely” to the left thigh and that it was sustained “either as Clark was walking toward the officers’ position with his left thigh raised, or possibly in the crouching position.”
“At no time does the video show Clark to have the left side of his body facing the officers’ position as shots are fired, nor does the video show him turning around from a left-facing position, still upright, and putting his back squarely toward the officers as there are further shots fired which then dropped him,” Reiber wrote. “The video evidence provides clear refutation of Omalu’s description of Clark’s positioning during the shooting as described in his press conference statements.”
Reiber, who did not immediately respond to a request for comment, declared that Clark died from “multiple gunshot wounds.”
Omalu rejected the new findings and questioned why Gin requested an outside review.
“I find it extremely unusual that an outside doctor is reviewing an autopsy report and is coming out to state (I) am wrong,” he said. ” A doctor cannot say another doctor is wrong. All you can say is I don’t agree with the opinion of that doctor.”
Omalu said the county’s findings show why it was critical for the Clark family to hire their own expert.
“This is why the family saw the need to hire their own independent expert, because they don’t trust the pathologists or the county because of things like this,” Omalu said. “What they forget is we have pictures and pictures speak for themselves.”
The shooting of an unarmed black man, along with Omalu’s findings about Clark, sparked intense protests, marches and demonstrations across Sacramento and demands that Sacramento County District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert file criminal charges against the two officers.
Schubert has said she still does not have the police department’s final report on the shooting, and that a decision on the case could take many months, but protesters have continued demonstrations outside her office, including Tuesday, where word of the county’s findings caused alarm.
“In the middle of the night, in the dark, they could not tell he had drugs in his system,” said Sonia Lewis, chapter lead for Black Lives Matter Sacramento who was at the protest at Ninth and G streets. “It’s irrelevant.
“They went behind a blind corner and emptied their clip without identifying themselves. The facts of the case did not change.”
Another community activist said there was little surprise about what the county report found.
“What did we expect that they were going to do?” said Berry Accius, a community activist in Meadowview.
“Now comes the argument, ‘Well he was taking drugs.’ Now comes the argument, ‘Well, look at the autopsy the police have,'” he said. “What we know for sure is Stephon Clark is not coming back.”
Clark, an unarmed black man, was shot to death March 18 in the south Sacramento backyard of his grandmother’s home. Police have said the officers who shot him thought he had a gun but since determined he was carrying only a cellphone.
Clark family attorney Benjamin Crump, who is expected to file a federal civil rights lawsuit against the city, was not available for comment Tuesday.
Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg said Clark’s death must spur new training and procedures in the police department.
“Stephon Clark’s death remains a tragedy regardless of the particular results of an autopsy,” Steinberg said. “We remain focused on working with the community and the police department to reexamine police training, protocols and procedures in an effort to avoid such tragedies in the future.”
