Massive Protest Over Stephon Clark's Shooting Shuts Down Parts Of Downtown Sacramento
SACRAMENTO (CBS13) - Downtown Sacramento looks a lot different now than it did a few hours ago but there's still a strong police presence after this tense day of protests.
The protests are over the shooting death of 22-year-old Stephon Clark.
Clark, who was a suspect in a string of vehicle break-ins, was shot at 20 times by two Sacramento police officers. He was unarmed at the time.
Stevonte Clark led a chant outside the Golden One Center, shouting out his brother's name as he walked through a crowd of demonstrators.
Hundreds came together to protest the police shooting of Stephon Clark, an unarmed black man shot twenty times by officers. He was found holding only a cell phone.
"We need people out here in the streets to show everyone that we actually care about our others, we care about our brothers, we care about our sisters, and we don't want this to go on anymore," protester Rovante Robinson told CBS13.
Earlier, protesters marched onto Interstate 5 in Downtown Sacramento, forcing a big traffic backup. The crowd left on its own.
After closing the freeway, protesters came onto the Kings Plaza where one protester climbed up a wall to hang up a Black Lives Matter sign.
At one point, protesters trying to push through the Golden 1 Center employees' entrance were physically confronted by security and Sacramento police. Officers deployed pepper balls and mounted police were also called to the scene.
It's a police shooting that left an unarmed black man dead and fueled anger and frustration that led to the massive demonstration today.
Stevonte Clark talked to the protesters for about a half an hour and said how proud he was of them for protesting peacefully.