On March 18, 2018, in Sacramento, Stephon Clark was shot and killed by police officers who thought he was holding a gun and aiming it at them.
At least, that’s what the police officers say they saw. One also thought he saw a muzzle flash from the gun, indicating Clark was already shooting at them. The other officer only thought he saw light reflected off the metal of the gun.
As it turned out, Clark was only holding a cellphone. Light could have reflected off the phone, or Clark could have been taking a photo of the officers (as people who think the police are harassing them often do) and they saw the flash.
It was dark and the police are taught to shoot first when they believe their lives, or the lives of their fellow officers, are in danger. They at least thought they were pursuing a violent felon who had already broken several car windows and a sliding glass door on a home.
In any case, the police were not charged with a crime. So, is shooting someone because you think they are pointing a gun at you legal?
What if that someone is a police officer? If someone breaks into your home without warning, is it legal to shoot that person if you don’t know he or she is a police officer?
What if Stephon Clark had been holding a gun? If he had shot them preemptively because he thought they would shoot him on sight when they saw he had a gun, would he have been justified? What if the police had broken into Clark’s home?
Would he have been acquitted? Should he?
The law is one thing, reality another. While there is some legal theory that a using lethal force in defense of a home would have been justified, the courts and the police tend to overlook the errors of law enforcement more generously than those of the general citizenry.
Here are a few examples, all involving no-knock warrants looking for armed and dangerous drug dealers but which found nothing to justify police action:
- On Dec. 19, 2013, Texan Henry Goedrich Magee shot and killed an officer entering his home with a no-knock warrant. He said he thought he was being burglarized and the grand jury decided that was a reasonable assumption. They decided against indicting him, on the shooting, anyway, though Magee did spend 18 months in jail on a marijuana charge.
- On the other hand, in a similar case, Marvin Guy of Texas is still awaiting trial more than four years after a no-knock raid resulted in an officer’s death.
- Cory Maye of Mississippi spent 10 years on death row for killing a police officer during a drug raid on his home before a plea deal reduced the charge to manslaughter and time served in 2014. Maye had claimed he was defending his young daughter against what he believed was an attack on his home.
- Ray Rosas – who wasn’t even the target of the raid and didn’t kill the police officers he shot – spent two years in jail, mostly in solitary confinement, awaiting trial before he was acquitted. His elderly mother was removed from his care and he lost his family home.
So, yes, sometimes you can shoot a police officer in self-defense – at least if it’s a no-knock raid and you don’t know the intruder is a police officer – but that doesn’t mean you will get off scot-free.
Stephon Clark’s case wasn’t a no-knock situation. He was out in the open. Still, he didn’t have the gun police thought he did. There were other factors, however, that may have led to the officers not facing charges.
Clark was acting peculiarly.
What the officers couldn’t have known at the time is that Stephon Clark had multiple drugs in his system – alcohol, marijuana, opioids, benzodiazepine, and an over-the-counter allergy medicine – and his blood alcohol concentration (BAC) was 0.091, higher than the 0.08 drunk driving standard.
Some have suggested he was committing suicide by cop. At a press conference, Sacramento district attorney Anne Marie Schubert implied that Clark was suicidal. At the very least, he may have been depressed. Evidence included:
- His browser search history revealed he was looking up ways to commit suicide with drugs;
- His girlfriend/fiancé said he struck her and now was threatening him with jail for violating parole;
- A text he sent to his girlfriend showed a photograph of a handful of pills (Xanax), with the message, “Let’s fix our family or I’m taking all of these.”
But, as has been pointed out by some commentators, we don’t know if the police had any drugs in their system or their mental state. There’s no indication that their blood was tested for drugs, or that their phones or browsing histories were checked for incriminating evidence.
And they should be. Police officers are two or three times more likely to abuse drugs than the population as a whole.
A quarter of police officers are estimated to have alcohol or drug abuse problems. We should be doing more to help them into addiction rehab before their self-medication leads to avoidable civilian or police deaths, and that starts with knowledge.
Aside from the risks associated with performing their duties, there is the risk of suicide. According to Blue HELP, in 2018 more police officers took their own lives than were lost in the line of duty for at least the third year in a row.
Another police officer involved in a shooting was Amber Guyger, who was off-duty when she shot and killed Botham Jean in his own apartment, Sept. 6, 2018, in Dallas. In a way, this was a no-knock situation, but no warrant or raid was involved.
Guyger had just gotten off a 14- or 15- hour shift (she wanted the overtime) when she attempted to enter Jean’s apartment, which was one floor above her own. She claims she thought it was her apartment and that Jean was an intruder. She also says she was tired – understandable after a long shift. But other aspects of her story have changed:
- Guyger at first said the apartment door was closed, then later she claimed it had been open a little, ajar at least. Neighbors have said that the apartment doors close automatically, so it couldn’t have been ajar.
- Guyger says she put her key in the lock, pushed, and the door opened. Lawyers for Jean’s family claim they have a witness who heard her pounding on the door demanding to be let in.
- Guyger claims she thought it was her apartment, but when she called 911 she had to check the apartment door to give them the number. (If she had just realized she was in the wrong apartment, this would be understandable.)
Guyger has been indicted and was fired by the Dallas Police Department. The trial is set to begin in September 2019.
That Guyger was off-duty at the time of the shooting may explain why her treatment differed from that of Stephon Clark’s shooters. Police Chief Renee Hall said at a press conference that “we have ceased handling it under our normal officer-involved shooting protocol.”
Even so, she is receiving much better treatment than civilians who shoot police officers. Guyger at least is out on bail.
Although Guyger’s blood was drawn for a toxicology report, the tests either haven’t been completed or have not been released more than nine months later. Stephon Clark’s toxicology report was revealed after less than six weeks. It would be cynical to suggest that if Guyger’s report was clean, it would have been released already.
Some of Guyger’s behavior suggests possible intoxication, mental confusion or poor judgment. She might even be suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (she shot a suspect in 2017).
Allegedly, Guyger had complained about noise from Jean’s apartment before. Maybe she went there to say she needed some sleep and to please keep the noise to a minimum, and it escalated. Maybe she held a grudge and was in a bad mood. (Her Pinterest account was said to include violent braggadocio.)
Police have a dangerous and stressful job. It’s a job that most citizens know needs doing. That doesn’t excuse police officers who abuse their authority or are reckless or careless.
It doesn’t excuse institutional racism either. It may only be circumstantial, but with the exception of Magee, all the civilians in these cases are persons of color.
Finally, it doesn’t excuse so violent and fallible a technique as no-knock raids. There are more than 20,000 no-knock raids every year – as many as 50,000 in 2004 – but only about 25 percent turn up the suspected drugs.
The New York Times’ own inventory found no-knock raids resulted in an increase in officer deaths (eight instead of five) while civilian deaths decreased (31 instead of 47) over knock-and-announce.
The U.S. Constitution made the right to bear arms a guaranteed right second only to freedom of speech.
Police shouldn’t give the law-abiding citizens they are sworn to protect cause to exercise this right against them.
Stephen Bitsoli, a Michigan-based freelancer, writes about addiction treatment, politics, history, and related matters for several blogs. He welcomes comments from readers.
20 Comments
The author is right in part, and wrong in large part. Clark was a felon, he was committing a crime(s) and he fled from the cops. I would ask the author the obvious question: What are the cops to do, wait until they’re dead to make a decision?
And the other obvious question: How are the cops to know whether the bad guy is high or not, especially at night. There’s a significant attempt in this country to make it safer for bad guys and less safe for the cops. Why would we want to do that?
What does him being a felon mean? You still have to be reasonable, it is not fair that he get killed for holding a phone, no matter which way you slice it. Its unacceptable these cops were not even *charged* with manslaughter, this sends a very bad precedent, that what cops “think” dictates everything, what should dictate everything is the *reality* of the situation, the reality is these cops wanted to kill him, oh and by the way, even if they did believe he had a gun (Iphones do not look like guns, and second of all his phone was WHITE) it still would have been unjustified as they kept shooting him while he was face-down on the ground.
No ! No right to self defense against authority. A citizen stopped by the police , especially someone with a criminal background, needs to be respectful and non-combatant.
People need to ask how propaganda, lies, and misinformation is “informative”. Check out real numbers, and one will find the author is lying, or sadly very misinformed. See my comment, and absolutely accurate and verifiable stats, from the cops own records as to on the job cop fatalities. Fricke was railroaded even though it was the cops own fault. No knock home invasions should be banned nationwide as unconstitutional
I agree although I can’t find any mention of Fricke in the post. I believe Cory Maye was definitely railroaded.
REALLY! Lets not forget, the second amendment to the constitution was not put there to go hunting, or even to protect from criminals, it was put there to protect from tyrannical government officials, that would include police.
Oh please. Until they harm your family correct
No right to self-defense against authority, without exception? So a cop can abduct my child and sell her to human traffickers and you want me to be respectful and say, “Yes, Officer?” Are you daft? You need to stop watching television and believing all cops are good. There are scores of criminal cops who have committed heinous attrocities. Why would you expect a victim of such a cop comply with his own kidnapping or death? That’s not normal.
By far fewer cops are shot by individuals today than in the sixties. Since 1994 to the present crime rates have dropped 49%. Police deaths are down from almost 300 in 1960 to less than 150 today. Police shooting of Citizens per capita is the highest in the world except for South Africa. You may propagate myths, but stats show you are lying, or sadly misinformed.
Maybe they should shoot the suspect non-fatally asshole. Maybe they could aim for a suspect’s leg or shoulder instead of their head.
Thank you for this article. It is very informative. In case you had not heard, Jordan Fricke was just found guilty of killing Milwaukee Police Officer Matthew Rittner during the execution of a no-knock, forced entry search warrant. I witnessed the trial and it was stunning and eye-opening to see how it went down.
For starters, Fricke was kept in the MPD jail for three days while they pressured him to talk. They repeatedly tried to initiate an interview/interrogation, but every time, after they read him his rights, he asked for a lawyer and they said OK, the interview is over. Finally, the police explained to Jordan, that he could not get a lawyer until the DA had charged him and he was booked into the County Jail and they just needed him to answer a few questions to “help” the DA so he could file the charges. Tragically he gave in and started talking. 3 interviews over 9 hours and after the last one he was taken to the hospital. The police told him he had killed one of their family. When he said he did not hear them announcing “police, search warrant”, they called him a liar. Bottom line is they got him to say he heard the word ‘police’ twice and they also got him to say he was not being forced to say that. On the stand Fricke said he heard ‘police’ after he fired shots at the door. But it was too late… there were so many things wrong with the trial and the way the DA prosecuted him…
Sounds typical, it seems Police are allowed to violate your rights, or make mistakes, but if your just a citizen, you will find yourself in trouble. This is an outrage, I don’t care what color your skin is, the Constitution was put there to protect you, and to limit the Government. It seems they have in the past 50 years perverted its original intent. So who will stand against this tyranny?
18 usc 241 and 242, usc 42 for wrongful arrest lawsuits in civil litigation against them. usc 34. behvins doctrine.
Thank you Paul for sharing some hard truth. God Bless
So what do we do? Just sit and watch this happen? Don’t tell me “oh not all cops are bad” because we know “at least 40% of police officer families experience domestic violence” That means 2/5 cops sitting around are inherently evil and abusive. The other 3/5 are either protecting their fellow officer, don’t say anything, or are too stupid to realize the situation they are in. I’ve been upset always seeing police abuse in the news. I’ve been asking myself and the internet “what do I do if I see police corruption?” What if it were happening to a a close friend or family member? It never seems like a good outcome for a citizen that doesn’t want another citizen to die by a corrupt police officer. Also, don’t give me the whole “well all you have to do is lay on the ground with your hands on your head” because people STILL DIE from doing that. There have been investigations into Catholic churches ever since multiple priests were put under fire for accusations of rape. Something no one is to take light-hearted. How has there not been investigations into the police over every single bad thing we hear about them every day? Not all police are bad, but nor are all priests.[This comment has been condensed for space and clarity]
A LOT of what I said was taken out unfortunately. Even though I spent time finding citations and everything I said was backed up, TheCrimeReport took most of it down! Weird! All I said was that cops can get away with murder (true) and that we have almost zero chance of being able to help someone who is facing a corrupt police officer. There is obviously someone who looks at these comments and takes out what they please. Please do not take any of this down TheCrimeReport, The first citation was 40% cops (look it up). Second being George Floyd (they deleted the whole part I talked about this). 3rd being Charles Kinsey. My final question being – what do we do as citizens? Just stand around and watch people die? This is THE most important question right now. At the moment, there isn’t anything the internet or anyone else says you can do. Just watch a corrupt officer kill someone and complain later. That seems wrong. How can this be addressed? [note from editor: The Crime Report, like sall publications, reserves the right to edit comments. For security reasons, our policy is not to reproduce or post URLs in our comments section]
It’s worth at least noting that Henry McGee was white, and the other three were not.
“The U.S. Constitution made the right to bear arms a guaranteed right …”. NOT CORRECT. The constitution does not make rights. It says they shall not be abridged. They are already granted by God or by an individuals nature as a human being. You may argue it’s just semantics but it is a very important point of law. I do like your inclusion of the fact that the police are rarely tested for drugs, mental condition, or other factors. Only the suspect is tested, usually after he’s dead.
When I am in an on-the-job accident if it is my fault or not I am tested for drugs and alcohol. This should be the same for police who have to USE DEADLY FORCE at all times! The results should be made public and the cops fired if they have been found to test positive.
I agree that they should be drug tested for every crime that they do and get fired with no pay for their crimes just because they are law doesn’t and shouldn’t make them above the law and that’s because they’re not that many lawyers willing to take on the law