New Orleans Pelicans All-Star center DeMarcus Cousins has reportedly offered to cover the funeral expenses for Stephon Clark, an innocent 22-year old man who was shot and killed by police in Sacramento on Sunday.
Clark was reportedly killed in the backyard of his grandparents' home on after two Sacramento police officers fired 20 rounds at him because they believed he was an armed burglary suspect, according to reports.
According to the Sacramento Bee's Jason Jones, Clark's family had set up a GoFundMe Page earlier this week with the hopes of raising $50,000 for funeral expenses and burial costs. The page has surpassed that goal, with more than $61,000 being donated already, but Cousins has still reached out to the family about taking care of everything.
The 27-year old center spent his first 6+ seasons in Sacramento after being drafted fifth overall out of Kentucky in the 2010 NBA Draft.
Last night, protestors shut down Interstate 5 during rush hour and converged arm-in-arm outside of the Sacramento Kings home arena. Supporters holding signs with messages such as "Shut it down" set up around the Golden 1 Center prior to the Kings matchup against the Atlanta Hawks, preventing most ticket holders from getting into the arena.
The start of the game was delayed for about 20 minutes as a result of the protests but right before things got underway, Kings owner Vivek Ranadive addressed the crowd to show his support.
"We are so very sorry for your loss,'' Ranadive said, per ESPN. "We at the Kings recognize people's abilities to protest peacefully, and we respect that. We here at the Kings realize that we have a big platform. It's a privilege, but it's also a responsibility. It's a responsibility that we take very seriously, and we stand here before you, old, young, black, white, brown, and we are all united in our commitment.
"We recognize that it is not just business as usual, and we are going to work really hard to bring everybody together to make the world a better place, starting in our own community. We are going to work really hard to prevent this kind of tragedy from happening again.''
