A heart-broken family in Jackson is angry over the death of their brother and son.
The family says Mario Clark was killed by Jackson police in his mother’s home on Valentine’s Day. On Saturday morning, they assembled in demonstration and demanded justice.
“Death certificate; blunt force trauma injuries were a probable component, described by what means this injury occurred: physical altercation and restraint,” Clark’s brother Malcolm Edlder read from the death certificate. “We have that on video,” he added.
Elder and his siblings gathered to protest how he died, at his mother’s Jackson home on Pinedale Street; the very spot he is alleged to have lost consciousness and never regained it.
Clark’s family says he was diagnosed with a mental illness as a child, adding that his mental state that night is the reason his mom called police to come help.
“He’s a paranoid schizophrenic, so she was calling for them to come and take him to the hospital, but they didn’t give him any type of help,” his sister Ciara Elder said at the gathering.
“On top of the beating, AMR also gave him shots, which he was allergic to. We just want answers. Somebody has to be held accountable for what they’ve done.”
Malcolm elder said “he was on the floor and he was unresponsive. Somebody was supposed to get down there and do CPR immediately, not wait ’till the ambulance pulled up… they were supposed to do it immediately, CPR, right there, right then. He lost consciousness in the house, not in the street, in handcuffs. That’s where he was assaulted, unresponsive at that’s from where they toted him out the house.”
According to a medical report, Clark died from a brain injury and blunt force trauma is listed as the likely cause, Malcom said.
Ciara added that the incident is “tragic… and for it to be here, at my mom’s house, in front of my mom; that something that she has to live with for the rest of her life.”
Given Clark’s mental illness, his brother says police should have handled the situation differently.
The family has many unanswered questions; such as where is the officers’ body cam footage, and even, where are his organs?
Malcolm said “a grant [was] approved by the city council last year, for body cams. If these body cams would be worn in these incidents, we wouldn’t be sitting here having to prove ourselves to y’all.”
“I’m asking the citizens of the City of Jackson, when y’all are confronted by these officers, y’all need to have video of your own, because it’s our word against theirs.”
“My brother’s organs were missing out of his body [after dying in the hospital],” he added. “We have that on video- ya’ll need to explain this- he’s not an organ donor!”
On life support at the hospital, Clark was officially pronounced dead days later.
WJTV has reached out to the Jackson Police Dept. for response to the family’s allegations and we waiting to hear back from them.
