SACRAMENTO, Calif. _ California Attorney General Xavier Becerra announced Tuesday that he will not file criminal charges against the officers who shot Stephon Clark a year ago, setting the stage for even more unrest and protests in Sacramento.
"Our investigation has concluded that no criminal charges against the officers involved in the shooting can be sustained," Becerra said.
Becerra, who met with Clark's mother, Se'Quette Clark before revealing his decision, laid out a series of facts similar to those announced by Sacramento District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert on Saturday, but emphasized that his probe was entirely independent of hers.
"We did an independent, separate investigation of the facts and evidence in this case," he said. "We did it on our own ... and we reached our own conclusions."
The announcement came as Sacramento officials contend with growing unrest among activists angered over the death of Clark, an unarmed 22-year-old black man who was shot holding a cellphone that officers say they mistook for a gun.
Since Schubert's announcement Saturday, activists have marched to police headquarters, staged a sit-in that prompted the closure Sunday of Arden Fair mall _ the city's largest shopping center _ and spawned a chaotic march Monday night through East Sacramento that resulted in 84 arrests and scenes of officers in riot gear marching shoulder to shoulder through the wealthy Fabulous 40s neighborhood.
More protests are expected Tuesday, with one march directed at police headquarters again and demonstrators expected to flood into City Hall, where a council meeting is scheduled for Tuesday.
Monday night's protests included the arrests of prominent clergy leaders and others who found themselves being accused of failure to disperse after police tried to shut the march down because of reports that five cars in the East Sacramento neighborhood had been keyed.
Becerra announced plans for his own investigation shortly after Clark was shot as he fled from officers in Meadowview as they were investigating reports of a man breaking car windows.
Clark was later determined to be the suspect, and Schubert's investigation concluded the officers thought he was in a shooting position holding his cellphone out at them when they fired 20 shots, striking him at least six times.
Still pending is a review of both Schubert's and Becerra's investigations by the FBI in consultation with the U.S. attorney's office in Sacramento, as well as a $20 million federal lawsuit the Clark family has filed against the city of Sacramento and the officers.
In January, Becerra released a report urging the Sacramento Police Department to adopt sweeping changes in its use of force training and dozens of other areas. The 96-page report � which studied 18 officer-involved shootings over a nearly five-year period but not including the Clark incident _ offered 49 recommendations for changes in department policies.
A second report, not yet released, will focus on nondeadly use of force, recruitment and prevention of bias, among other areas, Becerra said, noting that Sacramento police already have adopted a number of overhauls that include the use of body cameras on all officers, the public release of videos and improvements in its foot-chase policy.
