Sons of Stephon Clark, Who Was Killed by Police, Will Receive $2.4 Million Settlement

Source: New York Times



The family of Stephon Clark, an unarmed black man who was shot seven times by Sacramento police officers last year and whose death prompted California to change its use-of-force law, reached a $2.4 million settlement this week with the capital city, court filings show.

The money will go to Mr. Clark’s two sons, ages 2 and 5, in three lump sums starting when they turn 22, according to the settlement, which was approved on Tuesday by a Federal District Court judge in Sacramento. The sons will receive just under $900,000 each once lawyer fees are deducted from the settlement. The settlement came after negotiations between Sacramento and Mr. Clark’s family, which had filed a $20 million wrongful-death lawsuit in January against the city and the two officers involved in the shooting, which occurred in the backyard of Mr. Clark’s grandparents.

The officers, Terrence Mercadal and Jared Robinet, did not face criminal prosecution for their actions on March 18, 2018, when they were dispatched to the Meadowview neighborhood of Sacramento to investigate reports of a person smashing car windows. Body camera footage showed the officers yelling, “Show me your hands — gun, gun, gun,” before firing 20 times into the darkness at Mr. Clark, 22, who did not have a weapon and had been holding a cellphone. The lack of charges against the two officers, who are still employed and had turned off an audio recording of the exchange, prompted protests.

Sacramento’s mayor, Darrell Steinberg, said in an statement on Thursday that he was proud of the way the community had responded to Mr. Clark’s tragic death, and he cited a law signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom in August requiring that the police use deadly force only “when necessary in defense of human life.” The law previously allowed for the use of deadly force when “reasonable.”

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/10/us/stephon-clark-shooting-settlement.html