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Protests continue in California over police shooting of black man

Demonstrators protest the police shooting of Stephon Clark, in Sacramento, California, US, March 30, 2018. (Photo by AFP)

Hundreds of people have again held a demonstration in the capital of the US state of California to protest against the police killing of an unarmed African-American man.

The demonstrators squared off with police in riot gear on Friday night in California's capital Sacramento, after an autopsy on Stephon Clark contradicted the police account of the fatal shooting. More protests were planned for Saturday.

The autopsy shows that all eight bullets hit Clark in the back, side or leg, Benjamin Crump, an attorney for the victim’s family, said on Friday.  

The findings also refuted statements by police that Clark, 22, had been moving toward officers when they fired on March 18.

The protesters, who were waving signs and chanting Clark's name in unison, gathered at city hall before marching into the Old Sacramento part of the city.

Some protesters were carrying megaphones and wearing black masks covering their faces. They shouted "Shoot us down, we shut you down.”

A forensic pathologist also said that none of the bullets fired by the officers entered Clark’s body from the front.

According to Bennet Omalu, the forensic pathologist who conducted the autopsy, any one of seven bullets that entered the upper half of Clark’s body could have led to his death. An eighth bullet hit him in the leg.

“Each of these bullets independently possessed a fatal capacity, meaning ... all he needed was one of the seven to die,” said Omalu at a briefing.

Hundreds of people attended Clark’s funeral in Sacramento on Thursday, which turned into a rallying cry for justice in the face of police violence against African-Americans.

Civil rights activist Al Sharpton delivered an angry, rousing speech at the occasion.

Sharpton noted that White House spokesperson Sarah Sanders, when asked by reporters on Wednesday why President Donald Trump had not addressed the incident, had called his killing a "local matter."

The incident follows a string of controversial cases involving fatal police shootings of black Americans.

An uproar following the incident erupted into days of protest in the streets of downtown Sacramento.


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