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Family of York county man killed wants justice; police say the shooter acted in self defense

The family of a York city man who was killed in January wants the county to charge his killer with murder. They say they have proof that this was premeditated. ...

The family of a York city man who was killed in January wants the county to charge his killer with murder. They say they have proof that this was premeditated. But, the York County District Attorney’s office says the person who shot Joshua Clark acted in self defense.

The shooting happened on January 18th at the intersection of Broad and Walnut Streets during what police say was a gun trade. It ended far different than expected and cost Joshua Clark his life. Now his family and investigators are at odds over who’s at fault, and what one family says happened is completely different from what police say. It has an aunt pleading for justice.

“They closed this and said this is basically a black on black crime so just let it go,” said Tanika Moore, the aunt of Joshua Clark.

Court documents state 16-year-old Dejan Jacobs and 22 year old Joshua Clark met for a gun trade arranged by their friend Chris Hill, but it didn’t go as planned. Joshua Clark put his gun to Dejan Jacobs’s neck and that’s when Jacobs pulled out his gun and fired multiple times. Clark never made it to the hospital, he died on scene. Police say Jacobs acted in self defense.

“My client’s not a murderer. He was defending himself,” said George Margetas, the attorney for Dejan Jacobs.

Moore says that’s not true. She says posts by Jacobs on Facebook under the name ‘Yung Haddy Hill’ prove he planned this. Tanika says Jacobs posted a photo of the intersection where the shooting happened two days before her nephew died.

“If that’s not ballsy, I don’t know what is,” said Moore.

Besides that picture, Tanika says Jacobs posted that he was, “going to jail tonight,” and tagged Clark. She said he commented that, “it was a challenge and that’s the one he picked.” Tanika says Jacobs is talking about her nephew. She showed the pictures to a detective but she says she never heard anything back.

“We showed him pictures, we showed him evidence that this was premeditated. These two young men, I don’t know what they were trying to accomplish or whatever, but the texts on Facebook is a self explanatory by itself,” said Moore.

Prosecutor Sarah Buhite says the Facebook posts don’t prove this was murder.

“There’s so many things that get posted on Facebook that may or may not be true and so something like that isn’t necessarily evidence,” said Buhite.

Buhite says despite what’s written in the posts, it didn’t change the course of the investigation.

“We certainly, ethically cannot charge something that we cannot prove beyond a reasonable doubt,” said Buhite.

Police charged both Jacobs and Hill, who are minors, with felony firearm charges. The family of Joshua Clark says that’s not enough. They say this is an injustice, and they won’t stop fighting until they get the answers they want.

“If you want the crime to stop then you have to make a prime example. You have to,” said Moore.

Since both suspects are minors they’re being held in county detention centers.

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