Paul Kitagaki Jr./Sacramento Bee/TNS via Getty Images(SACRAMENTO) — The Sacramento Kings took the home floor Sunday and donned T-shirts honoring the unarmed 22-year-old who was shot and killed by police last week.
On the front of the shirts read “ACCOUNTABILITY. WE ARE ONE.” On the back, there was a hashtag — #StephonClark — the name of the man who was killed March 18 in his grandmother’s backyard.
During a first-quarter timeout, a unified public service announcement from players from the Kings and the opposing team, the Boston Celtics, played on the JumboTron at Gold 1 Center in Sacramento.
In it, the players, over soft music, deliver various messages over the 30-second clip: “There must be accountability.”
“We won’t shut up and dribble.”
“These tragedies have to stop.”
Clark was killed after officers responded to a 911 call of a man in a hoodie breaking car windows and hiding in a backyard in the 7500 block of 29th Street.
When the officers encountered Clark there, according to released body cam footage, they believed Clark was in possession of a “toolbar,” according to police accounts.
Officers said Clark motioned toward them and one of them can be heard yelling: “Show me your hands… Gun, gun, gun.”
After both officers fired 20 shots, fatally wounding Clark, investigators recovered a cell phone near Clark’s body but no weapons.
Since the shooting, protestors have taken to the streets to call for change.
On Thursday, protesters formed a human wall and shouted “Shut it down!” stalling a game between the Kings and the Atlanta Hawks and preventing fans from entering the arena.
More protests are being planned. Longtime community activist Berry Accius, 40, who moved to the state capital 12 years ago from Long Island, New York, told ABC News that on Tuesday at 5 p.m. there will be a rally to “blackout” City Hall.
“People will be wearing black to represent the anti-blackness that has been shown out here in Sacramento,” he said.
Through a family spokesman, Clark’s family declined an interview. His brother, Stevante Clark, and the spokesman, however, said Benjamin Crump — who represented the family of Trayvon Martin, 17, who was fatally shot by a neighborhood watch volunteer in Florida in 2012 — would serve as an attorney for the Clark family.
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