3-22-18-ERNIE ALLEN’S-TOP STORY-

A 22-year-old Black man was gunned down by police in his backyard on Sunday night after Sacramento police mistook his cell phone for a weapon.

Stephon Clark has been identified as the victim in a Sunday shooting that took place after officers were called to investigate a series of shattered car windows around 9:18 p.m. Clark, a father of two, was killed at the home he shared with his grandparents and siblings, The Sacramento Bee reports.

According to the Bee, police where looking for a 6-foot-1 Black man wearing a black hooded sweatshirt and dark pants, hiding in a nearby backyard. Police also believed a suspect broke a neighbor’s sliding glass window with a “toolbar.”

As the Sacramento County Sherriff’s Department surveyed Clark’s neighborhood with a helicopter, they spotted Clark in his backyard and deployed a police unit to his location around 9:25 p.m.

Charise Frazier