![\"Stephon](\"https:\/\/a57.foxnews.com\/a57.foxnews.com\/static.foxnews.com\/foxnews.com\/content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/640\/320\/1862\/1048\/ap18086073159406-1.jpg?ve=1&tl=1?ve=1&tl=1\")
<\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>\n\n Stephon Clark, 22, was fatally shot on March 18, 2018, by two police officers.
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Prosecutors in California<\/a>\u00a0have decided not to charge\u00a0two police officers who fatally shot an unarmed black man last year, saying the \u201cshooting was lawful.\u201d<\/p>\n Sacramento County District Attorney Marie Schubert announced on Saturday that Officers Terrance Mercadal and Jared Robinet would not face criminal charges in the March 18 death of Stephon Clark after an independent review of the case found that the pair used lethal force lawfully.<\/p>\n The 61-page review<\/a> conducted by the prosecutor’s office\u00a0stated that \u00a0Mercadal and Robinet \u201chad honest and reasonable belief that they were in imminent danger of death or great bodily injury.\u201d<\/p>\n Schubert said the decision “does not diminish in any way the tragedy, the anger and the frustration that we heard since the time of his death.”<\/p>\n She added: “We cannot ignore that there is rage within our community.”<\/p>\n Reaction to the decision came swiftly on Saturday. Among the first to weigh in was Clark’s mother, Sequette, who refused to accept\u00a0prosecutors’ judgment. “They executed my son,” she said, according to The Associated Press. “It’s not right.”<\/p>\n Also on Saturday,\u00a0Gov. Gavin Newsom and civil rights activists called for criminal justice reforms concerning use of deadly force. Newsom called it a hard truth that\u00a0“our criminal justice system treats young black and Latino men and women differently than their white counterparts. That must change.”<\/p>\n How the community at large will react to prosecutors’ decision remained\u00a0an open question early Saturday evening, though Sacramento has been bracing for protests; business owners were warned by\u00a0a business association and state government workers told by legislative officials in recent days to stay away from downtown at least through the weekend.<\/p>\n STEPHON CLARK SHOOTING: A TIMELINE OF EVENTS<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Clark was shot and killed March 18;\u00a0\u00a0the two officers were responding to a report of somebody breaking car windows. Police said they believed Clark was the suspect, and that he ran when a police helicopter responded and\u00a0failed to obey officers\u2019 orders.<\/p>\n Police said they thought Clark was holding a gun when he moved toward them with his arms extended and an object in his hands. He was later found to only have a cellphone on him.<\/p>\n Police video of the shooting does not clearly capture all that happened after Clark ran into his grandmother’s backyard.<\/p>\n It showed\u00a0him initially moving toward the officers, who were peeking out from behind a corner of the house, but it’s not clear whether he was facing them or that he knew the officers were there when they opened fire after shouting “gun, gun, gun.” The video showed\u00a0Clark staggering sideways and falling on his stomach as the officers continued shooting.<\/p>\n OUTRAGE GROWS OVER POLICE KILLING OF STEPHON CLARK IN SACRAMENTO: \u201820 SHOTS OVER A CELLPHONE\u2019<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n “We must recognize that they are often forced to make split-second decisions and we must recognize that they are under tense, uncertain and rapidly evolving circumstances,” Schubert said on Saturday.<\/p>\n A review of the\u00a0district attorney\u2019s findings stated that \u201cthe law recognizes an inherent right to use deadly force to protect oneself or others from death or great bodily harm.\u201d<\/p>\n It continued: \u201cThis fundamental legal principle is known as the right of \u2018self-defense.\u2019 A police officer does not lose his fundamental right by virtue of becoming a police officer.\u201d<\/p>\n