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Autopsy: Clark Shot Seven Times In The Back

  • By Kevin Zeese, Popular Resistance

Independent Autopsy Shows Clark Was Not Threatening Police When Shot

The killing of Stephon Clark continues to result in mass protests before and after his funeral. Anger increased as an independent autopsy showed that Clark was never facing the police when he was shot.

The San Francisco Chronicle reported that Rev. Al Sharpton delivered the eulogy and said Clark’s name will not be forgotten until “we get justice.” Sharpton said  “This is not a local matter,” responding to a statement made by White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders about President Trump’s silence on Clark’s death. Sharpton continued “They’ve been killing young black men all over the country. And we are here to say that we are going to stand with Stephon Clark and the leaders of his family.”

Reporting on the independent autopsy, the Los Angeles Times reported “It’s very simple. The narrative that’s been put forth is they had to open fire because he was charging toward them,” said civil rights litigator Ben Crump, who is representing Clark’s family as autopsy shows “all of the bullets were from behind.”

The coroner found that Clark was never looking at the police when they shot at him 20 times. Dr. Bennet Omalu conducted an independent autopsy days after Clark was killed. He reported that Clark was hit by eight bullets, and all but one entered while his back was turned toward police. One bullet entered Clark’s left thigh from the front and was probably fired while he was on the ground and had already been shot multiple times.

Omalu said the claim “That he was assailing the officers, meaning he was facing the officers, is inconsistent with the prevailing forensic evidence” as documented in the autopsy. Omalu conducted the autopsy for Clark family lawyers in preparation for a federal lawsuit against the city and its police officers. Omalu was the pathologist in neighboring San Joaquin County where he resigned alleging the sheriff was seeking to protect police officers involved in fatal shootings.

Omalu also said it would have taken from three to 10 minutes for the wounds to kill Clark. Police waited several minutes to approach Clark then handcuffed him before seeking to resuscitate him.

The LA Times also reports “In police videos, a sergeant pulls the two officers to the side and a voice says, ‘Hey, mute,’ before the sound cuts off, indicating that the audio recording had been stopped.”

The official county coroner’s autopsy results are not expected to be completed for several weeks.

Below are tweets describing recent actions around the killing of Clark.

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