It’s been six weeks since Frank Clark was shot and killed by a controversial Durham police officer in McDougald Terrace, and while members of the city council have requested that Governor Roy Cooper expedite the State Bureau of Investigation inquiry into the incident, the city’s reviewdespite numerous allegations of excessive force against Officer Charles Barkley and a postmortem photograph that appears to conflict with the police narrative of what went down November 22has been slow-going.
Barkley and the other officers involved in Clark’s death, Christopher Goss and Monte Southerland, are still on administrative leave. But no other action has yet been taken by city manager Tom Bonfield, even as civil rights advocates have called for the release of the officers’ personnel files, which might contain complaints issued against the officers as well as explanations of Southerland’s March 2016 suspension and Barkley’s 2014 suspension. When pressed by the INDY, a city spokesperson said the manager would be “releasing a statement” this week. (Council member Steve Schewel says Bonfield is considering releasing the files.) As of press time, no such release has been issued.
In related news, a caseworker at the chief medical examiner’s office told the INDY last week that Clark’s autopsy is essentially complete, but it will not be released until the office receives the toxicology results.
