'White Men Were Involved in the Robbery': Portland Officer Kills Unarmed Black Man After Mistakenly Targeting Him as Rob
‘White Men Were Involved in the Robbery’: Portland Officer Kills Unarmed Black Man After Mistakenly Targeting Him as Robber, Lawsuit Says
After a Black man was fatally shot in the back by a Portland police officer while running away during a response to an armed robbery call in November 2022, he was left to bleed out for nearly 30 minutes and later died at a hospital, according to a lawsuit filed by a representative of the man’s estate.
“The victim told the 911 dispatcher that [three to four] white men were involved in the robbery, and they left in a sedan heading west on Powell Boulevard,” according to the lawsuit.
“The victim was only able to describe the gunman as a white man wearing a ski mask and a black hoodie. The victim provided no further description of any of the suspects other than that they were ‘definitely’ white men,” the complaint continues.
Officers then followed a vehicle without probable cause that its occupants were involved in the robbery and approached it after the car with multiple people stopped in a church’s parking lot, according to the complaint.
The officers attempted a “high-risk felony stop” of the non-running vehicle that Clark was standing near in a parking lot, according to the lawsuit, which claims the officers “wrongly and unreasonably believed this car was involved” in the attempted robbery attempt about 20 minutes prior.
When officers approached while Clark stood near the driver’s door, he ran off and a Portland officer shot the man in the back, according to the lawsuit.
https://atlantablackstar.com/2024/03/17/lawsuit-portland-officer-used-excessive-force-in-fatal-shooting-of-unarmed-black-man-left-to-bleed-out-after-being-mistakenly-targeted-as-robber/
When officers responded to the call, according to the lawsuit, they followed with vehicles and a police plane, but the officer driving lost sight of the car. An officer in the plane then spotted a sedan with three people inside and parked in a parking lot. The officers on the ground could not see the car, the lawsuit said, but decided to "conduct a 'felony' or 'high-risk stop'" of people who had either exited the car or stayed inside the vehicle. The armed robbery suspects then fled the area.
Clark-Johnson and another man, David Dubois, were standing by a nearby car when police got out of their cars. Both men ran, with Dubois ahead of Clark-Johnson; the lawsuit noted that both Clark-Johnson and Dubois were Black men, not the white men described by the victim.
The lawsuit repeatedly said that the officers had no probable cause or reasonable suspicion to believe Clark-Johnson or the car he was standing near had been part of the attempted robbery.
An audio recording showed Sathoff firing three times, with the bullet lacerating Clark-Johnson's small bowel, mesentery, left kidney and liver, then exiting through his abdomen. As Clark-Johnson bled out, "unable to walk or crawl," and called for help, police prevented "would-be good Samaritans" from providing him with medical aid or calling an ambulance, the lawsuit described.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/family-of-man-who-died-after-being-shot-in-the-back-by-portland-police-sues-city-officer/ar-BB1jAvPk
A minute after Clark was shot, an ambulance arrived nearby that could have responded, but it was kept from the scene for 25 minutes, according to the lawsuit.
Portland police are required to give “emergency medical aid to ill or injured persons,” the lawsuit notes, accusing city law enforcement of not doing that in this case as well as in others. In the lawsuit, the attorneys accuse the city of a “custom and practice” of not providing timely medical care to people shot by Portland police.
“By the time Clark arrived at [Oregon Health & Sciences University] there was nothing the doctors could do to save his life,” the lawsuit states.
The case went before a grand jury last summer, and jurors opted not to file criminal charges against Sathoff.
https://www.opb.org/article/2024/03/07/portland-oregon-police-lawsuit-deadly-shooting-force-guns-unarmed-immanueal-manny-clark/
“Did you see any objects in his pocket?” Miller asked. “Was the pocket full to you?”
“I couldn’t see, but I remember him, he kept his hand in his pocket, and it looked like he was trying to pull at something,” Sathoff testified. “I felt it was reasonable to assume that he was pulling out a gun at that time, being that he matched the description, and he had committed a felony crime.”
Later a member of the grand jury asked: “When you shot, you saw his back only?”
“It was, like, kind of his side,” Sathoff replied. “I couldn’t see his right hand.”
“And you shot at his back?” a grand juror asked again.
“Yes,” Sathoff said. “Yes.”
= new reply since forum marked as read
Kick in to the DU tip jar?
This week we're running a special pop-up mini fund drive. From Monday through Friday we're going ad-free for all registered members, and we're asking you to kick in to the DU tip jar to support the site and keep us financially healthy.
As a bonus, making a contribution will allow you to leave kudos for another DU member, and at the end of the week we'll recognize the DUers who you think make this community great.