Groups Call For Jamar Clark Case To Be Reopened
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- Black Lives Matter and the Minneapolis NAACP demand a reopening of the Jamar Clark Case and the appointment of a special prosecutor.
The demands come after Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman declined to charges officers involved in the shooting of Clark.
The groups say statements from Clark's "alleged" girlfriend standing in contradiction to statements made by Freeman has many in the community questioning the validity of the investigation.
The woman with Clark the night he was shot and killed by Minneapolis police is once again speaking out and telling her side of the story.
On Monday, RayAnn Hayes showed her face as she stood with Black Lives Matter and the Minneapolis NAACP.
They point to inconsistences in the Hennepin County Attorney's version of what happened that night and are asking for the Jamar Clark case to be reopened and a special prosecutor brought in to oversee it.
Hayes' story was the same on Monday as it was last week during WCCO's exclusive interview with her.
She says Clark was not her boyfriend and did not hurt her the night he was shot by police.
Her statements have sparked a series of demands by Black Lives Matter and the Minneapolis NAACP.
"I never got beaten, I never called the police and said I was beaten by my boyfriend," said RayAnn Hayes.
Surrounded by a coalition of groups, Hayes once again spoke her truth about what unfolded the night Clark was shot by police.
"There was an altercation. I tried to break it up. Jamar tried to stop it, and I pulled away from him. I fell, I twisted my ankle," she said.
Members of Black Lives Matter say the fact that Hayes' accounts of what happened and her relationship with Clark were overlooked brings the investigation into question.
"We have to start looking at why this evidence was not taken into account, and if so what other evidence could have been overlooked or neglected at this point," said Mica Grimm with Black Lives Matter.
"So all these stories going around, they're not true. I'm just sick of the rumors," Hayes said.
Hayes says many are focusing on an interview in the hospital right after she had surgery on her ankle as being "inconsistent" with an interview she did with the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension in February.
She says she doesn't remember that first interview because of the pain medication she was given.
"That's crazy for them to say that I answered the questions for them when I wasn't even in my right mind. I was drugged up with all kinds of morphine and stuff for my leg, for my ankle," Hayes said.
This group of activists says it wants a new way of dealing with communities of color by police and government.
"We know that there is a pending federal investigation which we welcome, but we would also call upon the Department of Justice once again to place the Minneapolis Police Department under a federal receivership," Nekima Levy-Pounds, Minneapolis NAACP president said.
Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman says Hayes identified Clark as the man who beat her to paramedics that night.
He says she also told investigators hours after the shooting that Clark assaulted her but changed her statement 3 months later.
Freeman says Clark's DNA on the officer's gun proves he was trying to take it.
He feels the officers acted reasonably in fear for their lives, thus no charges can be brought against them.
On Monday afternoon, Freeman released a statement saying, "some civilian witnesses who knew both Ms. Hayes and Clark characterized their relationship as being of a romantic or domestic nature."
Freeman also added, "The prosecutor's job is to answer the narrow question whether the police officers reacted unreasonably and without justification at the moment they used deadly force. If the answer to this question is that the officers acted reasonably in fear of their lives or lives of others, the prosecutor, under Minnesota Statutes and Supreme Court cases, cannot bring the criminal charges against them. I am convinced that if one reads the entire record available on-line and applies the mandated legal standard they will agree that no charges can be brought against the police officers."
