May 3 (UPI) — Dr. Bennet Omalu, the private pathologist who said Sacramento police shot Stephon Clark six times in the back, issued a letter Wednesday rejecting the Sacramento County coroner’s findings in Clark’s autopsy.
The Sacramento County coroner released Clark’s autopsy report on Tuesday, describing the shooting in different terms than Omalu’s portrayal. The coroner concluded Clark was shot seven times, including three times in the back.
Omalu’s autopsy report determined Clark was shot eight times, six times in the back.
Sacramento officers shot Clark, 22, to death March 18 in his grandmother’s yard while responding to a vandalism call. Police said Clark refused orders to drop his cellphone, which the officers mistook for a weapon.
Along with the letter, Omalu released a black and white photo of Clark’s corpse.
Omalu said that photo disproves the county autopsy report.
“Stephon Clark, as the photograph clearly shows, was shot once in the right back of his neck, three times in the right back of his trunk, once in the back of his right shoulder, and once in the back of the right side of this chest,” Omalu wrote.
“Experts may have different opinions, but a picture is a picture,” Omalu wrote. “A picture does not have an opinion.”
The dispute comes as protesters continue a campaign asking Sacramento County District Attorney Anne to file charges against the two officers.
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