The lawsuit seeks at least $20 million in damages and alleges that the officers who fired had racially profiled the 22-year-old and used excessive force.
Lawyers for the family of Stephon Clark, the unarmed black man who was fatally shot last March by Sacramento police officers, filed a wrongful-death lawsuit on Monday alleging that the officers who fired had racially profiled the 22-year-old and used excessive force.
The complaint, filed in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of California, names the two officers — Terrence Mercadal and Jared Robinet — as well as the City of Sacramento as defendants. It seeks at least $20 million in damages and was filed on behalf of Mr. Clark’s two sons, his parents and his grandparents.
According to the 31-page lawsuit, the officers failed to identify themselves as police or issue verbal warnings about their intent to use deadly force before firing 20 times at Mr. Clark, who was killed in his grandmother’s backyard and was later found to have been holding a cellphone, but no gun. It also faults the officers for having deprived Mr. Clark of lifesaving medical care.
During the encounter, Mr. Clark’s civil rights were violated in several ways, his family’s lawyers argued. “There were other reasonable options available other than shooting and killing” Mr. Clark, the complaint said.
“This family deserves answers and full transparency from the officers, the city and the Sacramento Police Department on the unjustified use of excessive and lethal force that killed Stephon Clark and robbed his children of a future with their father,” Brian Panish, a lawyer for Mr. Clark’s children, said in a statement.
Both California’s attorney general Xavier Becerra and the Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office have said they would review any criminal aspects of the case.
