Jamar Clark's sister says her concern lies with change, justice, not settlement money

MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) - Thursday, attorneys announced a tentative agreement is in place for a settlement in the shooting of Jamar Clark by Minneapolis police.

Now, for the first time since the deal was reached, we are hearing from the sister of Clark, Tiffany Roberson, who says the family’s work doesn’t end with a check.

The police officers’ union says the officers’ actions that night were justified and no money should be awarded in Jamar Clark’s case. Roberson says no amount of cash will ever bring her brother back. For her, this fight has always been about justice.

"He cared for people, he loved helping people," said Roberson.

Giving to people in need: that’s how Tiffany Roberson remembers her baby brother, 24-year-old Jamar Clark.

"He was working two jobs and helping my sister who died eight months after he did," she explains. "She lost her lifeline. They took that from her, and they took him from us."

Jamar was shot and killed in 2015 during a struggle with Minneapolis police. The officers were never charged. His family then filed an excessive force lawsuit against the city for violating Jamar’s civil rights.

"Sixty seconds from the time they laid eyes on Jamar, he didn’t have a chance. He didn’t have a chance," Roberson tells us. "Why can’t they see that?"

Thursday, the city offered the family a tentative $200,000 settlement. "When they did, we turned it down and we were prepared to go to trial," Roberson says.

Yet, a lawyer on Jamar’s case says his adopted father and trustee is expected to take the offer. "Pretty devastated about that," Roberson tells us.

"It was the hand that was dealt them by Jamar Clark," says former BCA agent Mike Wold. "By no one else, by him."

Mike Wold says the shooting could have been avoided if Clark had listened to officers. "Hands out of your pocket, put ‘em up on your head, put your hands on the car. Any one of those things Jamar Clark is alive today. Philando Castile, same thing. The Damond case, that was a travesty. And I just think that’s a young guy that maybe probably shouldn't have been on the force."

Wold also calls Jamar’s shooting death “a justified homicide.” "The family should be happy that they got something. Jamar did a lot of things wrong in his life and he could’ve changed it."

But money isn’t what Jamar’s sister says she’s after. "They haven’t given us much hope at all for change and ultimately with all of this that’s what we want to see with all of this, not a dollar amount, not an excuse, we want to see change."

That’s why, when the city council moves to vote on the proposed deal, Roberson hopes they consider equality and what she calls “the right thing.”

“That would be to not move forward with this because it’s humiliating. Hu-mi-liating,” she says.

Remember, when the city offered the family a five-figure settlement, council members voted against it, indicating the amount was too low. Roberson says the council could vote on the proposed settlement by the end of the month.