SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Family, friends and strangers, some expressing anger and frustration, gathered in Sacramento on Wednesday for a public wake for 22-year-old Stephon Clark, an unarmed man shot by police in his grandparents' backyard.
Some attendees wore black shirts calling for justice, while one woman held up a clenched fist as she exited the Bayside of South Sacramento church. The wake was largely quiet until Clark's brother, Stevante Clark, shouted at the media to leave before being picked up and carried away.
The outburst came a day after he disrupted a Sacramento City Council meeting and chanted his brother's name at Mayor Darrell Steinberg.
Some said the two police officers who shot Clark should be criminally charged, while other mourners said they could envision their own families in Clark's family's place.
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Photo: Rich Pedroncelli, AP
Mariah Jones, second from left, hug her husband, Jamarr Jones as they leave the wake for police shooting victim, Stephon Clark at the Bayside of South Sacramento Church, known as BOSS Church, Wednesday, March 28, 2018, in Sacramento, Calif. Clark, who was unarmed, was shot and killed by Sacramento Police Officers, Sunday, March 18, 2018. A another mourner, right, holds the couples daughter Amina Jones, 2.
lessMariah Jones, second from left, hug her husband, Jamarr Jones as they leave the wake for police shooting victim, Stephon Clark at the Bayside of South Sacramento Church, known as BOSS Church, Wednesday, March
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Latavia Ross pushes her two-year-old son Jayceon Hurts in a stroller in Sacramento, Calif., on March 28, 2018, as part of a protest calling for criminal charges against the police officers who fatally shot Stephon Clark, an unarmed black man. She said she attended the protest because she thinks it's good for the community to come together in an effort to end to gun violence.
lessLatavia Ross pushes her two-year-old son Jayceon Hurts in a stroller in Sacramento, Calif., on March 28, 2018, as part of a protest calling for criminal charges against the police officers who fatally shot
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Stevante Clark, the brother of police shooting victim Stephon Clark, is carried into the Bayside of South Sacramento Church, known as BOSS Church, after confronting members of the media who were covering Stephon's wake Wednesday, March 28, 2018, in Sacramento, Calif. Clark, who was unarmed, was shot and killed by Sacramento Police Officers, Sunday, March 18, 2018.
lessStevante Clark, the brother of police shooting victim Stephon Clark, is carried into the Bayside of South Sacramento Church, known as BOSS Church, after confronting members of the media who were covering
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Mariah Jones, second from left, hug her husband, Jamarr Jones as they leave the wake for police shooting victim, Stephon Clark at the Bayside of South Sacramento Church, known as BOSS Church, Wednesday, March 28, 2018, in Sacramento, Calif. Clark, who was unarmed, was shot and killed by Sacramento Police Officers, Sunday, March 18, 2018. A another mourner, right, holds the couples daughter Amina Jones, 2.
lessMariah Jones, second from left, hug her husband, Jamarr Jones as they leave the wake for police shooting victim, Stephon Clark at the Bayside of South Sacramento Church, known as BOSS Church, Wednesday, March
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CORRECTS SPELLING OF FIRST NAME TO CURTIS, INSTEAD OF KURTIS - As Sequita Thompson, center, discusses the shooting of her grandson, Stephon Clark, Clark's uncle, Curtis Gordon wipes a tear from her cheek during a news conference, Monday, March 26, 2018, in Sacramento, Calif. Clark, who was unarmed, was shot and killed by Sacramento police officers a week ago who were responding to a call about a person smashing car windows. At right is attorney Ben Crump.
lessCORRECTS SPELLING OF FIRST NAME TO CURTIS, INSTEAD OF KURTIS - As Sequita Thompson, center, discusses the shooting of her grandson, Stephon Clark, Clark's uncle, Curtis Gordon wipes a tear from her cheek during
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An attendee for the wake of police shooting victim Stephon Clark carries a drawing of Clark to the Bayside of South Sacramento Church, known as BOSS Church, Wednesday, March 28, 2018, in Sacramento, Calif. Clark, who was unarmed, was shot and killed by Sacramento Police Officers, Sunday, March 18, 2018.
lessAn attendee for the wake of police shooting victim Stephon Clark carries a drawing of Clark to the Bayside of South Sacramento Church, known as BOSS Church, Wednesday, March 28, 2018, in Sacramento, Calif.
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This March 18, 2018 photo, courtesy of the family, shows Stephon Clark at 5:20 p.m. in the afternoon before he died in a hail of police gunfire in the backyard of his grandmother Sequita Thompson's home in Sacramento, Calif. On Monday, March 26, Thompson called for changes in the way police confront suspects, such as sending in a police dog, using a Taser, or aiming for an arm or leg when shots are fired. (Family courtesy photo via AP)
lessThis March 18, 2018 photo, courtesy of the family, shows Stephon Clark at 5:20 p.m. in the afternoon before he died in a hail of police gunfire in the backyard of his grandmother Sequita Thompson's home in
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Stevante Clark jumps on the dais and shouts at Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg, left, during a city council meeting, Tuesday, March 27, 2018, in Sacramento, Calif. Clark, the brother of Stephon Clark, who was shot and killed by Sacramento Police officers a week earlier, disrupted the meeting and demanded to speak. The city council adjourned for a roughly 15-minute recess as a result of the disruption.
lessStevante Clark jumps on the dais and shouts at Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg, left, during a city council meeting, Tuesday, March 27, 2018, in Sacramento, Calif. Clark, the brother of Stephon Clark, who
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Ticket holders unable to enter the Golden 1 Center stand outside the building after protesters forced a lockdown of the arena before the Dallas Mavericks played the Sacramento Kings in an NBA basketball game Tuesday, March 27, 2018, in Sacramento, Calif. The demonstration was over the shooting death of Stephon Clark by Sacramento Police officers on March 18.
lessTicket holders unable to enter the Golden 1 Center stand outside the building after protesters forced a lockdown of the arena before the Dallas Mavericks played the Sacramento Kings in an NBA basketball game
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Anger, frustration at wake for unarmed man killed by police
"This feels like the 60s, it doesn't feel like 2018. We've definitely regressed," said Cynthia Brown, a friend of Clark's grandfather who brought her 10- and 15-year-old grandsons to the wake. "To me, (they) could be Stephon Clark."
The Rev. Al Sharpton plans to deliver the eulogy at Clark's funeral on Thursday.
Tensions remain high in California's capital city following the March 18 shooting. Two police officers who were responding to a report of someone breaking car windows fatally shot him in his grandparents' backyard. Police say they believe Clark was the suspect and he ran when a police helicopter responded, then did not obey officers' orders.
Police say they thought Clark was holding a gun when he moved toward them, but he was found only with a cellphone.
Many mourners weren't buying that narrative.
"You always feel threatened — you're a law enforcement officer, it comes with your job title," said Rahim Wasi. "That doesn't give you a right to go running around like Clint Eastwood in a movie."
Some of Clark's relatives were more conciliatory.
"We're not mad at all the law enforcement. We're not trying to start a riot," said Shernita Crosby, Stephon Clark's aunt. "What we want the world to know is that we got to stop this because black lives matter."
Cousin Suzette Clark said the family wants Stephon Clark remembered as "more than just a hashtag."
He was outgoing, funny, loving, a good-looking man who liked to dress sharp and the doting father of two young sons.
"He made some mistakes in his life, but he was genuinely a good person," she said.
Protests have been held almost daily and marchers have twice blocked fans from entering the NBA arena downtown for Sacramento Kings games. The police, the Kings and Steinberg's office met Wednesday to discuss security ahead of Thursday night's game. Sgt. Vince Chandler said officers would be ready to respond in protective gear, according to The Sacramento Bee.
On Wednesday, about 50 protesters took over the intersection near the Sacramento district attorney's office as part of a protest organized by the local Black Lives Matter chapter to urge the district attorney to file charges against the officers.
They disrupted midtown rush hour traffic as they marched through the streets. Latavia Ross, pushing her 2-year-old son Jayceon Hurts in a stroller, said she attended the protest because she thinks it's good for the community to come together to end to gun violence.
Meanwhile, Steinberg said disruptions like Stevante Clark's at Tuesday's council meeting won't happen again.
"That sort of demonstration in the council chamber cannot happen again. It won't happen again. But in that moment, that was a brother grieving for the loss of his brother," he said.
For all the angst and raw emotions, some grieving and weary family members are skeptical that any substantive change will result before the next young black man dies from police gunfire and siphons away the national media and banner headlines.
"You know, sadly, I have no confidence in America and the fact that I will probably hear another story sometime this year of an innocent life lost over excessive police force," Curtis Gordon, Clark's uncle and the family's spokesman, told The Associated Press in an interview Tuesday. "It's so common, you're numb to it."
The California attorney general's office on Tuesday joined the investigation, a move Sacramento Police Chief Daniel Hahn said he hopes will bring "faith and transparency" to a case that he said has sparked "extremely high emotions, anger and hurt in our city."
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Associated Press writer Sophia Bollag and videographer Haven Daley contributed to this story.
