Sacramento police officers who shot Stephon Clark will not be prosecuted: WATCH LIVE

SACRAMENTO – The two Sacramento police officers who were killed by an unarmed black man last year at nationwide protests will not be charged with criminal charges, Sacramento County District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert said on Saturday.

Schubert said the use of lethal force used by agents Terrance Mercadal and Jared Robinet was legal. The officers said that they thought Clark, a vandalism suspect, had a gun, but the investigators found only a cell phone.

"We must recognize that they are often forced to make decisions in a split second and we must recognize that they are in tense, uncertain and rapidly changing circumstances," Schubert said.

The city has been preparing for protests before the decision, with business owners being warned by a professional association and state government employees in the last few days, asking them to move away from the center. city ​​at least during the weekend.

Schubert said the decision not to press charges against officers "does not diminish the tragedy, anger and frustration we've heard since the death of his death".

She added, "We can not ignore that there is rabies in our community".

The demonstrations that followed the shooting were largely peaceful, but disrupted downtown professional basketball games and highway traffic.

Clark's family, including his two sons, parents, and grandparents, sued for wrongful death in January, asking the city, Mercadal and Robinet, for more than $ 20 million, alleging that the police had used excessive force and that he was a victim of racial profiling. .

One of the officers who shot Clark is black and the other is white, police said.

The passions were more inflamed by the contradictory results of the autopsy.

Police said that Clark was facing agents when he was killed, moving his arms outstretched and an object in his hands.

The police video of the shooting does not clearly reflect everything that happened after Clark hit his grandmother's garden.

This shows him initially heading towards the officers, who are peeking behind a corner of the house, but it is unclear whether he was facing them or knew he was aware that the officers were there when they opened fire after shouting "gun, gun, gun." The video shows Clark staggering and falling on his stomach as the police continue to shoot.

Dr. Bennet Omalu, the pathologist whose study on chronic traumatic encephalopathy in football players has prompted the NFL to adopt new safety rules designed to prevent concussions, said the latest news from the team. An autopsy that he had performed for the family had shown the police that she had shot Clark seven times from behind.

The official autopsy made public later revealed that Clark was probably hit by a shot as he approached the police, which is consistent with the police story. The forensic doctor detained by the Sacramento County coroner said that Omalu had mistaken an exit wound with an entry injury, thus leaving the impression that the police had initially fired on Clark from the back, although Omalu defended his conclusion.

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra conducts his own investigation at the request of local authorities.

Use of force experts said that it was unlikely that officers would be charged with criminal charges under court orders allowing officers to use deadly force. when they reasonably fear being injured. The standard makes it rare for officers to be charged after a shootout and even rarer than they are convicted.

Clark's shootout prompted pending national legislation allowing the police to use lethal force if there was no reasonable alternative, including a non-lethal force or efforts to calm the situation.