Unarmed black man shot dead in his own backyard after US cops mistake phone for gun

Stephen Clark was fatally shot by Sacremento Police on Sunday. Photo / Facebook

A 22-year-old black man in California in the US was shot dead by police in his own backyard after the officers reportedly mistook his cell phone for a weapon.

Stephen Clark was shot dead in the backyard of his home in South Sacramento, where he lived with his grandparents and some of his siblings.

The police department said officers were responding to a call of a person breaking car windows nearby.

The suspect was said to have been using a "toolbar" to break the window of a home and police had been told he was hiding in a backyard.

Deputies reportedly spotted Clark in his backyard from a police helicopter and told officers on the ground about his location.

Police say they approached Clark who had an "object" he "extended in front of him".

"The officers believed the suspect was pointing a firearm at them. Fearing for their safety, the officers fired their duty weapons striking the suspect multiple times," the police department said in a release.

The 22-year-old was pronounced dead at the scene.

After his death, police said that the only item found near his body was his cell phone.

The man's grandmother, Sequita Thompson, heard the gunshots from inside the house.

"The only thing that I heard was pow, pow, pow, pow, and I got to the ground." she told the Sacramento Bee.

"I opened that curtain and he was dead," she said. "I started screaming."

The two officers who interacted with Clark were wearing body cameras and the police department says it plans to release to footage. They have both been placed on paid administrative leave.