SACRAMENTO — The Sacramento Police Department on Monday released hours of additional video footage and 911 calls from a fatal police-involved shooting of an unarmed black man last month that sparked days of protests.
The department released video from 23 dash cameras, 28 body cameras, and a Sacramento Sheriff’s Department helicopter. The department also released two 911 calls.
Monday’s release comes a little less than a month after the department released footage from the body cameras of the two officers who shot Stephon Clark, 22, and the sheriff’s department helicopter soon after the March 18 shooting. Police killed Clark in his grandmother’s backyard.
The newest footage shows officers racing to the fatal shooting and captures radio traffic from officers at the scene reporting that someone was down in the backyard.
The footage also shows officers at the scene asking each other if their body cameras are muted. It was not immediately clear if any of those officers were the two officers involved in the shooting.
Last month, police released footage that captured someone telling officers involved in the shooting to mute their body cameras. The muting of the cameras stoked suspicion among community members.
The department’s policy at the time of Clark’s death addressed deactivation of the cameras but not specifically muting them, according to Police Chief Daniel Hahn.
Earlier this month, Sacramento police issued more comprehensive parameters on when and how officers could mute their body cameras. The guidelines are temporary while the department does a thorough policy update.
Authorities said the two Sacramento officers who shot Clark were responding to a report that a man had broken car windows and was hiding in a backyard. Police pursued a man — later identified as Clark — who hopped a fence into his grandmother’s property,
The officers fired at Clark because they believed he was pointing a gun at them, police have said. But only his cellphone was found at the scene.
Police fired 20 times at Clark. Dr. Bennet Omalu, a forensic pathologist retained by Clark’s family to conduct an independent autopsy, said he found Clark was shot by Sacramento police eight times, and six of those wounds were in his back.
