Protestors blocked the entrances to the Golden 1 Center in Sacramento for the second time on Tuesday night, preventing the crowd from entering the Sacramento Kings and the Dallas Mavericks game to continue calling for justice to the recent death of an unarmed 22-year-old African-American man named Stephon Clark.
Clark was shot and killed by the Sacramento police on Sunday, March 18, while he was in his grandparents’ backyard. As it was earlier reported, Clark was shot several times Sunday night following a foot suit. The authorities said that they were directed to Clark after they received reports of a man who had broken the windows of several cars.
The statement issued by Sacramento Police Department read that at the time of the shooting, the police officers believed that the suspect was pointing a firearm at them. However, after a search, the scene investigators did not find any firearms, and the only thing they found near the suspect was a mobile phone.
The Black Lives Matter demonstrators had led a protest march last Thursday where they had prevented many fans from entering the center to watch the Kings’ game against the Atlanta Hawks that night. This further caused a delay in the match proceeds. As per NBA Bay Area, the game’s tip-off was delayed from 7:05 pm PT to 7:23 pm PT.
After the game ended that night, Vivek Ranadive, Kings Owner joined the team players, coach, and executives on the court and extended deepest sympathies to Clark’s family and pledged that the team would work hard to prevent such kind of tragedy to happen again in their community.
On the other hand, the members of the Boston Celtics and Kings came out for the Sunday’s game wearing warm-up shirts that had Clark’s name printed on the back and the phrase “Accountability. We Are One” printed on the front side.
