'Change can come': Jamar Clark's mother is keeping her son's legacy alive, 10 years on
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Saturday marks 10 years since the fatal shooting of Jamar Clark by Minneapolis police.
Sixty-one seconds after two police officers first encountered the 24-year-old Clark outside of a house party on the North Side, an officer shot Clark in the head. He died the next day.
Clark was unarmed, and the officers were never charged.
In the aftermath of the shooting, there were questions of whether Clark was handcuffed at the time of the shooting, and whether Clark had reached for an officer’s gun. And in the absence of conclusive video, there were concerns over whose accounts investigators and prosecutors considered when deciding not to file charges — the police officers, or other witnesses to the shooting.
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The shooting prompted protests, including an occupation outside the city’s 4th Precinct that lasted 18 days.
Even though it’s been 10 years since the shooting, Clark’s mother feels as though no time has passed at all.
“It still feels like yesterday,” Irma Burns said. “It don’t never click in that this thing is real and so you have to be jerked, in a sense, back to reality that is real.”
Burns has since focused on honoring Clark’s life and legacy by starting a foundation in his name. It’s called Project Jamar Saving Me.
“He always wanted to help people,” Burns said. “So, Project Saving Me is a project designed to help the community, to try to reach our youth.”
On Saturday, Nov. 15, Clark’s family will unveil a new memorial bench at the exact spot where Clark was shot. They hope the bench ”honors his life, his spirit and his role in galvanizing a generation of community members fighting for transparency, justice and meaningful police accountability.”
Burns said an existing bench for Clark in Plymouth had already led to a powerful encounter for one young man. Burns met him while the foundation was holding a community event there.
“He sat on that bench because he was getting ready to go do something really bad and he say something stopped him,” Burns said. “He even turned the gun that he had in.”
Beyond the work she’s doing in the community, Burns is holding onto the memories of her son — including Clark bringing home a very heavy table for her.
“He was determined to give me a table, which was a glass table,” Burns said. “But he didn't have no way of getting it to my house. So, he carried it on his back.”
It was a 10-block journey in scorching heat. The table still stands in her living room today.
“I dare anyone to come close to it, to touch it the wrong way. You’re gonna hear from me,” she said.
Burns said in these last 10 years, she’s seen the larger impact her son has had.
“I feel like Jamar was a big piece of even starting that journey to bring awareness,” she said. “I know that it’s a big sacrifice, but I feel if these things come together in his name, I'm gonna continue to say I don't think this would be in vain.”
