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Police killing of Stephon Clark generates national attention as questions swirl

National scrutiny is growing around Sacramento police amid more protests over the shooting of Stephon Clark, an unarmed African American man.

Before their game Sunday at Golden 1 Center, Sacramento Kings and Boston Celtics players wore T-shirts bearing Clark’s name. The black shirts had the words “Accountability. We Are One” emblazoned on the front and “Stephon Clark” on the back.

The NBA players wore the shirts during pregame warmups and continued wearing them during the playing of the national anthem. Some players from both teams also made a video posted on social media, saying “these tragedies have to stop” and “there must be accountability.”

Sacramento police and authorities have urged the public to give them time to complete their investigation into the 22-year-old’s March 18 shooting in his backyard, including a moment captured on police video when an officer says to mute the sound of the recording.

In an interview with The Times on Friday, Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg said Clark’s death, though still under investigation, “was wrong,” and he pointed to the need for not only more administrative change, but also a reckoning with racism itself.

“Our kids and men don’t feel safe,” Steinberg said. “There is no danger if we do the right thing, if we push aggressively to change what must be changed.”

Others, including House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco), have been more blunt; Pelosi said Clark “should be alive today.”

The Rev. Al Sharpton on Sunday said he was “alarmed” by the shooting. Police believed Clark was armed with a gun at the time, but only a cellphone was recovered at the scene.

Sharpton said he planned to attend Clark’s funeral Thursday.

Read more at LA Times.  

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