More Demonstrations For Jamar Clark Planned For Friday

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- Supporters of Jamar Clark plan to gather again Friday inside the Hennepin County Government Center, asking for justice and solidarity.

On Wednesday, Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman announced the two officers involved in the shooting death of Clark will not be charged.

Freeman, who spoke with WCCO again on Thursday, encourages people to look at the evidence.

He said the whole situation could have been avoided in a lot of ways.

He also said he focused on Minnesota law and Supreme Court precedent, asking whether a reasonable cop have done the same thing as Dustin Schwarze and Mark Ringgenberg did at the very moment of the shooting.

Freeman said Clark should have listened to the police and removed his hands from his pockets, even if he thought the police were wrong. He also said we need to do a better job training police how to de-escalate a situation and how to strategically withdraw.

Also, WCCO's Reg Chapman talked exclusively with the woman who was with Clark the night he was shot by police.

RayAnn Hayes says what investigators say her role was that night back in November is wrong. Hayes says she was never Clark's girlfriend, and there was not a domestic dispute.

Hayes says she twisted her ankle, fell into the door and split her lip, which all happened when she tried to get in the middle of an argument. An hour and a half after she fell, she says she called 911 and calmly told the dispatcher she was hurt and needed help.

Freeman said people at the scene, as well as EMTs, told investigators Hayes pointed out Clark as her boyfriend and the man that hurt her. However, in her 911 call Hayes never makes any mention of someone else hurting her.