Widower Of Slain Natomas Librarian Amber Clark Now On Mission For More Gun Safety Laws
SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — Life in prison. That is the sentence for the man convicted of killing Sacramento librarian Amber Clark as she left her Natomas branch in 2018.
Now her widower, Kelly Clark, is speaking out with an emotional message and his new mission now that the trial is over.
"What's the word you use to describe the aftermath of this trial," Cbs13's Steve Large asked Kelly Clark, widower of Amber Clark.
"Relief," Clark said. "I have a great sense of relief."
Clark has spent the past three-and-a-half years waiting for this moment.
"Having gone through this I have become a calmer person in self-reflection. I've become a more generous person, a more empathetic person than I was prior to Amber being killed," he said.
Amber Clark was murdered outside her library branch by Ronald Seay, who she had banned months earlier for violent behavior. Seay is now sentenced to life in prison for her murder.
"His internet searches the morning before he killed Amber involved searching for a black man who had killed white people on a subway in New York," Clark said.
Evidence during the trial showed Seay had searched for information about a 1993 mass shooting on a New York train.
Clark knew that heading into court.
"There was one piece of information that was news to me, during the trial," Clark said.
Clark found out during the trial that six weeks before Seay murdered his wife, Sacramento police were called to the home Seay was staying in with his brother. His brother was concerned Seay owned two guns he bought legally in Missouri and he had recently been behaving erratically.
California allows families to petition a court to have guns taken away during mental health crises. That did not happen.
"And firearms removed for 21 days so in my mind it definitely would have prevented Amber's death," Clark said.
"How do you frame that? It's a painful piece of information I'm sure," Large said.
"It was," Clark said. "It made me very angry initially and then saddened that here was another opportunity another 'what if,' if law enforcement had done this.
"It's upsetting and I want the public to know that there are tools if law enforcement fails to do what they should, then we can as citizens at least in California have firearms removed from people expressing mental health crises."
Clark says he plans on being an active advocate for gun safety laws across the country in memory of Amber's life.
