Activists are staging eight days of protest after another black man died following an interaction with the Sacramento Police Department.
The action began on Tuesday during a city council meeting, according to The Sacramento Bee. The coalition chose eight days to symbolize the number of times Stephon Clark was shot in March. The group hopes the eight day protest will result in accountability for the deaths of Clark and Brandon Smith, who died on June 6 while being transported in a police vehicle.
In a video released by the police department, Smith said "I'm f*cked up. I feel like I'm having a heart attack. Oh my God," as he was led to the vehicle. He fell as he was loaded into the truck, and when the vehicle arrived at the jail, Smith was unresponsive. He was later taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead.
Tonya Faison, founder of Sacramento Black Lives Matter, expressed disbelief that another death would occur while Clark’s death is still being investigated.
"I'm back in here again unfortunately because somebody else died in police custody, Sac PD custody,” Faison said during the city council meeting. “It's not even been three months since Stephon was killed. We don't even have an investigation that's been completed as far as we know, and we have another death on our hands in police custody, Brandon Smith."
Faison wants the officers involved in both incidences to be terminated. "You need to start firing these officers because they're not going to stop doing this until you start giving them repercussions," she said.
Smith’s brother, Brionne Mays, wants to see the officers behind bars.
"At this point we can't bring him back,” he said to Capital Public Radio. “So justice for me is some indictments. You have these same people working, it happens over and over, it's just following a trend."