Several hundred protesters gathered in front of the Sacramento District Attorney’s office on Wednesday, April 4,2018, to protest the fatal police shooting of Stephon Clark.
Several hundred protesters rallied in front of Sacramento County District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert’s downtown office Wednesday, demanding justice for Stephon Clark, the 22-year-old Sacramento man killed by Sacramento Police officers last month.
The protest also marked the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination in Memphis, Tenn.
The protest is the second organized by Black Lives Matter Sacramento in front of the Schubert’s office this week, and the fifth at that location since two Sacramento Police officers shot Clark on March 18.
Overall there have been at least eight major protests in the past few weeks that have shut down city streets, blocked access to two Sacramento Kings games and disrupted a City Council meeting.
One protest march in south Sacramento resulted in a tense standoff between protesters and police, and another saw a protester struck by a Sacramento County Sheriff’s vehicle.
“Send killer cops to jail,” protesters chanted Wednesday.
Activists have been pressuring Schubert’s office to prosecute the two officers who fired 20 rounds at Clark in the backyard of his grandparents’ house, where he was staying. The officers apparently mistook a cell phone for a gun.
The Anti Police-Terror Project, which seeks to “eradicate police terror in communities of color,” according to their website, is listed as a co-host for Wednesday’s event, along with The Justice Network.
Almost 600 people said they would attend the event on Facebook, though the crowd was only about half that size as of 4:30 p.m.
As of Wednesday afternoon, the Police Department had not yet officially released the names of the two officers who shot Clark, citing safety concerns stemming from threats made to the two officers. A representative from the law office of Oakland civil rights attorney John Burris identified the two officers as Terrence Mercadal and Jared Robinet last month.
Shelly Orio, a spokeswoman for the Sacramento District Attorney’s Office, said employees were working normal business hours on Wednesday. The administrative office is the workplace for the department’s prosecutors, administrative staff, investigators and victim advocates, she said.
On Tuesday, the front door to building was locked when a Sacramento Bee reporter tried to open it at the start of that protest.
Traffic advisories were sent out via the Sacramento Police Department’s Nextdoor page and a text messaging system, warning of “heavier than normal traffic congestion in the downtown area this afternoon.”
Elk Grove’s public transportation service, which operates some commuter routes in downtown Sacramento, sent out a similar notice earlier Wednesday.
