Video Shows Moments Before Cops Kill Black Man Holding Phone

SACRAMENTO, CA — Sacramento police have released body camera footage of two police officers shooting a 22-year-old black man to death in his own backyard, thinking a cellphone he was holding was a gun. Stephon Clark was shot to death on Sunday night by two police officers on the 7500 block of 29th Street.

Police had been responding to a 911 call that a black man in a black, hooded sweatshirt and dark-colored pants broke car windows and was hiding in a backyard.

"During a neighborhood canvass, investigators identified at least three vehicles with damage that is believed to have been caused by the suspect," police said.

Body camera footage released on Wednesday shows the officers probing the area with flashlights as deputies in a helicopter circled overhead. At the 7:45 mark, one officer sprints to another who shouts "Hey! Show me your hands!"

Both officers enter the grassy backyard and the officer twice shouts "Show me your hands!"

Moments later, he yells "Gun, gun, gun!" and the officers open fire on the suspect.

The video is too dark to see the suspect.

After the shots stop, one officer tells the other the suspect had been "pointing" but doesn't say what was pointed or in which direction.

Minutes later, one officer can be heard telling another that the suspect came up and approached us "hands-out."

When asked what the suspect had on him, one officer responds he had "something in his hands."

"It looked like a gun from our perspective," the officers says.

Minutes later, another officer tells the officer wearing the camera to mute the recording device. No audio is recorded for the entirety of the subsequent conversation, other than the officers being asked if they're ok.

Infared helicopter footage only records the suspect running away from pursuing police officers in the backyard. The seconds leading up to the shooting — including footage of whether the suspect was pointing something — were not visible. The footage clearly shows the officers taking cover behind the house and shooting at the suspect from their positions, as well as the suspect falling to the ground.

The suspect shattered a sliding glass door before "engaging" police officers, police said in release. Initially they said he had used a "toolbar," but an updated release omitted the word.

Moments before shots rang out, police saw the suspect face them and advance forward with his arms out, the police release said. The release said he was also holding an "object" in his hands.

Both officers fired 10 times each.

"At the time of the shooting, the officers believed the suspect was pointing a firearm at them," the release said.

Sacramento Police Sgt. Vance Chandler told KCPQ-TV that the police officers feared for their lives.

"[He] had something, an object in his hand, and pointed it at our officers," Chandler said. "And at that time our officers believed it was a firearm, and out of fear for their own lives they fired their service weapons."

But an exhaustive search turned up no gun.

"The only item found near the suspect was a cell phone," police said in the release.

Clark, a father of two sons ages 1 and 3, had been in the backyard of his home that he shared with his grandparents and siblings, his brother told The Sacramento Bee.

A GoFundMe campaign has since been created to raise money to help Clark's grandparents give him the "ceremony he deserves" and so he can be buried with his family.

Warning: Videos contain graphic images and profane language. Personal information was redacted to protect the privacy of those involved.

Photo credit: GoFundMe