Stevante Clark, the brother of slain 22-year old, Sacramento father, Stephon Clark, had a strange interview with CNN’s Don Lemon on Wednesday night’s CNN Tonight.
Clark appeared – at different points – solemn, hopeful, and combative in the short and tense exchange, according to VLADTV.com
The tension began shortly after Lemon asked Clark how he was holding up. The young man responded by ringing a bell off-screen. When an incredulous Lemon asked what that was, Clark replied, “next question.”
Lemon noted that Clark was clearly grieving when he quickly responded.
“I’m not in grief,” said Clark, wearing a white t-shirt with the hashtag #StephonClark across the front. “We haven’t slept, we haven’t ate. The media keeps following us everywhere we go.”
Clark fought back tears as he talked about an initiative he wants to work with Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg on involving the building of a library and recreational center in Stephon’s honor.
Before Lemon could respond with another question, Clark – seemingly agitated – appears to blame the media for his family’s grief.
“What the media does, they wait for a love one dies, they find out it’s a tragedy, they swarm that person, they put them in grief,” Clark said, as Lemon attempted to respond. “They ruin their lives forever. Their lives are never the same.”
Clark then demanded that Lemon say his brother’s name, which the anchor refused to do before abruptly ended the interview.
The interview lead to questions over Clark’s brother’s stability during his family’s time of mourning. He has displayed similar outbursts by interrupting a meeting earlier this week of Sacramento’s City Council to protest his brother’s killing as well as at his brother’s funeral earlier today.