ORLANDO — ATF agent Will Clark, who is on trial in the Virgin Islands for murder, is getting support from some very high places in the U.S. government.
The ATF posted a photo on its webpage of Attorney General Eric Holder Jr. addressing the annual conference for the International Association of Chiefs of Police on Tuesday in Orlando and noted that Holder was wearing “an ATF Badge and yellow ribbon in support of SA Will Clark.”
The website said Holder delivered the speech after meeting with Kenneth Melson, head of ATF, and the agency’s executive assistant director William J. Hoover.
Clark shot and killed a Virgin Islands man in September 2008 during a confrontation. The prosecution said Tuesday that Clark used unreasonable force, according to an account in the Virgin Islands Daily News. Clark’s attorney argued it was in self defense.
The incident in question happened on Sept. 7, 2008, in St. Thomas, where Clark was living at the time. He had been stationed in the Virgin Islands to help battle the territory’s problem with gun violence.
According to accounts by the ATF and Rep. Chris Lee, Clark left his apartment that morning and found his neighbor Marguerite Duncan crying and trembling.
“She pleaded for his help, knowing that Clark was a federal agent,” Lee wrote to congressional colleagues in a June 30 letter trying to stir support for his resolution backing the agent.
The woman’s boyfriend, Marcus Sukow, who was naked and supposedly intoxicated, reportedly started pounding on her car hood and throwing large landscaping rocks.
According to Lee, Clark tried calming the man, to no avail. The man allegedly made threats and eventually came charging at Clark with a Maglite flashlight, which is considered a potentially lethal weapon. The agent opened fire, killing Sukow.
An ATF shooting review panel found that Clark acted reasonably in the situation.
