Stephon Clark

Stephon Clark, 22, was shot and killed by Sacramento Police officers Terrence Mercadal and Jared Robinet in his grandmother's backyard on March 18, 2018, after they responded to a report of vandalism and pursued him on foot. The officers said they believed Clark was pointing a gun at them in the dark; he was holding only a cellphone. Sacramento County District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert announced in March 2019 that no criminal charges would be filed. Days later, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra's independent state review reached the same conclusion. In September 2019, federal prosecutors also declined to bring civil rights charges. Three separate reviews — county, state, and federal — each concluded independently that no charges could be sustained, and no one has ever been convicted in Clark's death.

Sacramento, CA · Sacramento County County

• 2018: Case opens — victim reported missing or found.
• Documented milestones (renewed investigation, media coverage, family advocacy) to be added as sourced.
• Present: case remains unresolved. No named suspect has been convicted.

• The foot pursuit, the shooting in his grandmother's backyard, and Clark's death, per the Sacramento Police Department's own investigation and subsequent reviews.
• Only a cellphone, not a firearm, was recovered from the scene.
• Sacramento County DA Anne Marie Schubert announced no charges on March 2, 2019, after reviewing the Sacramento Police Department's internal investigation.
• California Attorney General Xavier Becerra's office conducted a separate, independent state review at the request of Sacramento's police chief and announced on March 5, 2019 that no charges could be sustained.
• Federal prosecutors and the FBI announced on September 26, 2019 that they found insufficient evidence to support federal civil rights charges.
• The shooting and subsequent non-charging decisions prompted sustained protests in Sacramento, and contributed to California signing a 2019 law raising the legal standard for police use of deadly force.

• Why the officers believed Clark was armed in the dark, and what specifically about his movements led both officers to fire simultaneously, has been described differently across the three reviews and the family's own account.
• The exact number and sequence of shots fired, and Clark's position when struck, were disputed between the county's autopsy findings and an independent autopsy commissioned by the family.
• Whether either officer faced any internal departmental discipline, separate from the criminal charging decisions, was not fully resolved in public reporting at the time.

• California Department of Justice — “Attorney General Becerra Releases Report on Independent Investigation into the Death of Stephon Clark”
• NPR — “Officers In Stephon Clark Shooting Won't Be Charged, Says Sacramento D.A.”
• NBC News — “Feds won't pursue charges against officers in Stephon Clark's shooting death”
• Project Cold Case
• Murder Accountability Project
• NamUs