Federal authorities announced Wednesday they would not be filing charges against the two white Minneapolis police officers who fatally shot 24-year-old black man Jamar Clark last fall.
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Federal officials say there is not enough evidence to support federal criminal civil rights charges in the Jamar Clark case.
The U.S. Department of Justice’s civil rights division, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Minneapolis and the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Minneapolis division conducted the investigation into Clark’s death at the request of Hodges.
An internal police investigation is also expected once the results of the federal investigation are released.
According to the county attorney’s account, DNA evidence indicated that Clark was never handcuffed in the November 15 incident and that Clark’s DNA was found on an officer’s weapon, justifying the use of deadly force.
The killing set off weeks of protests, including an 18-day tent encampment outside the police department’s Fourth Precinct on the north side.
But witnesses insist Clark was cuffed and have pointed out that the encounter lasted less than a minute from the time officers first arrived.
They had acted in self-defense, Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman determined.
According to the newspaper, the federal findings about Clark’s DNA on the grip of the officer’s weapon essentially mirrored the state investigator’s finding.
Nekima Levy-Pounds, head of the Minneapolis NAACP, said: “We are exhausted of what is happening” and being “treated like second-class citizens”, adding: “They don’t want to give us justice”.
“Some said Mr. Clark had handcuffs when he was standing up”.
Levy-Pounds and a dozen other civil rights leaders, including members of the Black Lives Matter movement that has led protests against police shootings, appeared at a news conference and said they would campaign to push local officials out of office due to their response to Clark’s shooting. In fact, we reached the conclusion, based on all of the evidence that we reviewed that the evidence suggested that Mr. Clark was not, in fact, handcuffed when he was shot… As you may know, the news media has been reporting that the press conference by the U.S. Attorney’s office/DOJ would be held at 11 am today.
“The chances of that happening are pretty slim unless the facts are the facts and the officers are justified in doing what they did, ” he said.
“I understand this decision has struck at the heart of a painful tension in the community”.
“It’s a happy day for them”, said Kroll, who painted the decision as a vindication for the officers, according to CBS Minnesota. “What we can do now is move forward together to build a city that is safe and equitable for everyone”.
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The Justice Department is also reviewing how the city responded to the protests that followed Clark’s death. Mayor Betsy Hodges had asked the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate Clark’s death, which triggered massive protests and gained nationwide attention.
