Arkansas Cops Fatally Shoot 16-Year-Old Outside Youth Shelter

A 16-year-old boy was recently shot and killed by Arkansas police outside of an emergency shelter for juveniles, but details are few about the shooting that sparked an outcry against police violence

Aries Clark was shot Tuesday [around 7 p.m.] and died a day later after the incident outside East Arkansas Youth Services [a nonprofit that ‘provides positive alternatives to institutionalization’ for at-risk children according to its website] in Marion, the Daily Mail reports

Officers opened fire shortly after arriving at the facility about ten miles (16 kilometers) northwest of Memphis, Tennessee. No one has said why police were called or whether they felt endangered. Clark’s parents said that doctors told them that their son was shot in the back and the back of his head.

Vicky Clark, the teen’s mother, said her son ended up at the shelter for being “disruptive” at home, reports Memphis news station WMC reports. She “never expected not to see [her] son again,” the report says. Police have not said why police were called to the shelter, but a resident said Clark had been involved in an argument before cops came to the scene. News of the shooting quickly spread around Marion, and several social media videos of the incident are circulating. Two Marion officers were placed on paid administrative leave until the investigation ends.