'I Want Justice': Family Of Man Slain By Tuscaloosa Police Demands Answers

MOUNDVILLE, AL — Attorney and State Rep. Juandalynn Givan joined the family of Tristan Clark and their attorneys on a cold, breezy Thursday afternoon in front of a church in Moundville for a press conference after the 24-year-old was shot and killed last week by Tuscaloosa Police officers.

Click here to subscribe to our free daily newsletter and breaking news alerts.

Givan, a Democrat from Jefferson County, is also a candidate for Alabama's newly drawn 2nd Congressional District and referred to Clark as just the latest instance of violence against young Black men by police — going so far as to compare Clark to well-known names like George Floyd, Tamir Rice, Michael Brown and Breonna Taylor, among others.

"Say his name: Tristan Clark," she said, to which the family gathered behind her and seated in aluminum folding chairs responded by saying the man's name.

"Tristan Clark"

As Patch previously reported, the two TPD officers initiated a traffic stop on Dec. 20 as part of a narcotics investigation on 37th Street East, near the intersection of James I. Harrison Parkway.

Investigators said Clark was found to have an outstanding warrant and, when the officer was asking him to exit the vehicle, the officer observed a handgun in his waistband.

"The officer ordered the suspect to not touch the firearm," Tuscaloosa Violent Crimes Unit Commander Captain Jack Kennedy said in the evening immediately following the shooting. "The suspect began reaching for the pistol and the officer engaged in a physical altercation with the suspect attempting to keep the suspect from removing it.

He then said Clark was able to remove the handgun from his waistband and refused commands from officers to drop the gun.

"One officer fired his weapon and the suspect was struck several times," Kennedy said. "Medical and backup officers were called immediately and rendered aid, but the suspect was deceased."

Both officers were placed on administrative leave following the shooting, but Tuscaloosa Patch has since confirmed that both have returned to duty and the case has yet to be presented to a grand jury for consideration as of the publication of this story.

The case is being investigated by the multi-agency Tuscaloosa Violent Crimes Unit with investigators who are not employed by the Tuscaloosa Police Department, which is standard protocol for incidents involving the use of deadly force by an officer.

"He was my oldest son, my miracle baby," Jacoya Clark, Tristan's mother, said as she fought through tears on Thursday. "I would have never imagined on Dec. 20 to get the phone call that I received about my son, my Gentle Giant, so gentle, so loving and caring ... he loved his family, he loved his children ... I want justice for my son. I want justice for me, my family and his children. Because of what happened to him, he did not deserve."

At Greater Faith Church in Moundville on Thursday, Clark's family and their attorneys, led by Birmingham lawyer Reginald McDaniel, made accusations of impropriety on the part of the officers involved, while raising questions over the circumstances of the shooting.

The location was chosen, McDaniel said, because Clark had been attending the church and had even recently made the altar call to give his life to the Lord in the weeks before his death.

McDaniel and Givan provided most of the accusations, saying they had spoken with witnesses — presumably those in the vehicle with Clark at the time of the shooting — and said the information they have gathered tells a different story from offered by investigators.

Chief among the alleged inconsistencies mentioned came when McDaniel held both of his hands up to demonstrate the assertion, supposedly told to attorneys by witnesses, that Clark was complying with the officers and not reaching for his gun.

McDaniel was clear early on that Clark had a handgun in his waistband, but would later contradict himself in a press conference that did little to answer questions with facts when he refused to provide a direct answer when asked a follow-up question about if Clark was, indeed, armed at the time of the shooting.

"Don't ask why, but ask why this keeps happening," McDaniel said of the larger problem of police violence nationwide.

Still, McDaniel went so far as to admit the scope of his legal team's evidence at this time rests on the testimony of eyewitnesses, while asking questions like if one of the officers who shot him had a prior history with Clark in the form of his past run-ins with the law.

When asked by Tuscaloosa Patch to expound on the potential relationship, McDaniel said: "Based on information, we've talked to several people. Tristan did spend some time in the county and some of these officers working at the county at the time are now on the narcotics force, so there's a potential for some tie-in because of some of the issues that they were having while he was in the county and some of those officers might now be narcotics officers."

Givan echoed this possibility, even taking it a step farther in posing the possibility that Clark was "targeted" by police.

"We're going to begin to use these words," she said. "We want to know if there was a relationship between him and the officer involved."

McDaniel also attempted to contradict law enforcement in saying following the shooting that Clark had outstanding warrants at the time of the traffic stop, which comes after investigators confirmed to reporters that Clark was, indeed, known to local law enforcement.

"The story is that young Tristan was complying," McDaniel told reporters Thursday "He may have been targeted by this particular deputy from prior run-ins.

"We want to make it clear that witnesses we've talked to have confirmed that Tristan was not resisting," he added. "He did not get into a scuffle with the deputy. He did not reach for his weapon and he was not given a chance to barely give his name."

With television cameras from numerous stations recording, along with other live streams broadcasting on social media, McDaniel incorrectly accused the Tuscaloosa Police Department and Tuscaloosa Violent Crimes Unit of changing their public story in the media about the circumstances of the shooting.

However, at no time was the officer-involved shooting mischaracterized by law enforcement officials as a traffic stop gone wrong.

This accusation, while seemingly a red herring with little bearing on the actual circumstances of the shooting, is easily refuted by the initial press release from the Tuscaloosa Police Department emailed out a little more than two hours after the shooting and an afternoon press conference by VCU investigators — both of which explicitly say the traffic stop was made as part of a narcotics investigation.

Tuscaloosa Branch NAACP President Lisa Young was also in attendance Thursday on behalf of both the nonprofit and the local chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.

Young refrained from direct accusations but did demand action in the form of local governments adopting more stringent body cameras and dash-camera policies for police officers.

The alleged lack of body camera footage of the incident was another consistent point raised but those at the lectern Thursday and one that has yet to be independently confirmed by Tuscaloosa Patch at this point.

Patch has asked Tuscaloosa Violent Crimes Unit Commander Jack Kennedy if either of the officers were wearing body cameras at the time of the shooting and will update this story accordingly.

"This devastating event has underscored the pressing need for increased accountability and transparency within our law enforcement agencies," Young said. "The absence of such critical technologies jeopardizes the integrity of investigations and erodes the trust between law enforcement and the community. We cannot allow uncertainty and doubt to persist when it comes to matters of justice and accountability."

Indeed, questions persist and are likely to linger until the use-of-force case is presented to a grand jury sometime in the future.

For now, though, pain is mostly what's left in the wake of Clark's death — regardless of the circumstances or his prior criminal record. He's dead and all his family can do is pick up the pieces and try to make sense of the loss best they can.

"He has three kids that he would do anything for, he loves his mama and his grandmama," Clark's girlfriend Jakiyyah Dixon said. "He was very respectful. He would wake up and tell the whole house good morning. It's really distressing for me and his family to have to go through this and know that he was killed by the police — the people who are supposed to help us and provide support when we need it."

Perhaps the most touching comments offered up Thursday, though, came from his sister Megan Clark, who insisted Tristan was trying to turn his life around.

To her and others, he was a "gentle giant" and a "protector."

"All his kids look just like him and just to look in their faces and having to see them smiling and not understanding what's going on ... he didn't deserve that," she said. "He was a really sweet boy."

Have a news tip or suggestion on how I can improve Tuscaloosa Patch? Maybe you're interested in having your business become one of the latest sponsors for Tuscaloosa Patch? Email all inquiries to me at ryan.phillips@patch.com