Shot dead in Stephon Clark: Sacramento donates $ 2.4 million to two young sons

Sacramento, California – The city of Sacramento will pay $ 2.4 million to two sons of an unarmed black man who was shot dead by police last year, according to court documents.

A quarter of the money, along with expenses of nearly $ 14,000, will go to lawyers and the rest to a trust for the sons of Stephon Clark, who was killed in his grandparents' garden then that the police pursued him as a suspect of vandalism.

Clark's sons, aged 2 and 5, will have access to tax-free cash when they are between 22 and 25 years old.

The shooting unleashed months of protests in Sacramento and sparked protests across the country.

The settlement was announced for the first time Thursday by the Sacramento Bee in settlement documents filed Wednesday night in federal court. The documents indicate that family lawyers were entitled to 36.6% of the settlement.

A verbal agreement was reached in June between the Clark family and the city, reports CBS Sacramento.

Clark's family was initially seeking $ 20 million as part of a civil rights lawsuit filed by the federal government against Sacramento and the two policemen who had shot him down. Clark's parents and grandparents have not settled their claims.

County and state authorities refused to sue the two officers who shot Clark.

The police said they thought Clark had a gun while he was fleeing the police during a vandalism investigation. The investigators found only one cell phone after the officers shot him repeatedly.

"This is a complex case that essentially involves legal recourse to force by officers of the Sacramento Police Department," city attorney Susana Alcala Wood said in a statement to the police. l & # 39; bee. "In this case, the City of Sacramento determined that this partial resolution of the lawsuits filed on behalf of Mr. Clark's family was in the best interest of our community," in part because it avoided potential litigation. long and expensive.

She added that city officials thought that helping children "would mark a new stage in healing our community after a tragic event."