No charges for Wisconsin police officer who killed unarmed teenager
Photo: Dane County district attorney Ismael Ozanne said officer Matt Kenny used lawful force in fatal shooting of Tony Robinson on 6 March.
Note: Protests have been planned by Young, Gifted and Black in response to the decision not to indict the police officer who killed Tony Robinson in Madison, WI. See Black-Out Wednesday.
The white officer who shot dead biracial 19 year-old Tony Robinson in Madison,Wisconsin will not face criminal charges it was announced on Tuesday, more than 10 weeks since the teenager’s death.
Following an inquiry by Wisconsin’s state division of criminal investigation [DCI], the Dane County district attorney Ismael Ozanne declined to prosecute Madison police officer Matt Kenny, who responded to a number of 911 calls on6 March reporting Robinson was acting erratically and had allegedly assaulted at least one person in the street outside his shared apartment.
At a packed press conference, Ozanne delivered a detailed description of Kenny’s fatal encounter with Robinson, drawing from the officer’s account and dashcam footage from Kenny’s patrol car.
It was revealed for the first time that Kenny was aware Robinson was believed to be intoxicated as he approached the upstairs apartment and entered, but still the officer did not wait for backup. The officer believed a second person was inside the apartment after hearing “incoherent yelling and screaming”.
According to the officer’s account, Kenny “got to within a few steps” of the top of the stairs leading to the apartment doorway, and heard someone shout “well the police are here”.
Robinson then emerged and punched Kenny in the head. The officer then fell backwards and hit a wall in the stairwell. With Robinson still “swinging at him” and continuing to “aggress towards him”.
According to Kenny’s account he feared he would fall back and lose consciousness, leaving his firearm vulnerable to theft. He then opened fire.
Kenny fired seven shots from close range within three seconds, all of which hit the unarmed teenager. Ozanne said three separate bursts of fire occurred. Three shots were fired, followed by another three, and then a single shot.
Ozanne made no reference of Kenny acknowledging he fired a shot from outside the apartment, during his press conference on Tuesday. Instead, Kenny told investigators he yelled “do not move” and then rendered aid after seeing Robinson had no weapon.
“I conclude that this tragic and unfortunate event was the result of a lawful use of deadly police force and that no charges should be brought against Officer Kenny for the death of Tony Robinson,” Ozanne told reporters. He repeatedly mopped sweat from his brow throughout the press conference.
Ozanne also stated, as the Guardian reported in March, that one of the 911 calls on the evening was made by a friend of Robinson’s. The friend, who shared an apartment with the 19 year-old, described Robinson as “tweaking [acting erratically on drugs], chasing everybody and is really outrageous right now”.
Toxicology reports revealed Robinson had taken hallucinogenic mushrooms, cannabis and Xanax.
Madison police and the Wisconsin state department of justice had provided scant details of the incident since then. Ozanne was handed the findings of the DCI investigation in early April.
“On March 6, 2015 a young man lost his life far too soon,” Ozanne told said. “Now whether we are policing, teaching or parenting, when we use violence to control, we do so at a tremendous cost to the person to our community and ultimately to our humanity.”
“Although Tony Robinson was over 6ft tall and he was just past the age of majority, he was still a young man,” the district attorney said.
Addressing Robinson’s mother, Andrea, Ozanne said he was “so very sorry” for her loss.
Robinson’s family, who have repeatedly expressed their fear that the investigation would not return an indictment, called for calm on Monday, whilst criticising Ozanne for notifying them of the Tuesday announcement on Mother’s Day.
“My sister [Robinson’s mother Andrea Irwin] is pretty much inconsolable right now,” Turin Carter, Robinson’s uncle told the Guardian on Monday. “It’s very upsetting that that sort of thing would be done on such a meaningful day.”
Ozanne said he would be meeting with Robinson’s family immediately after the press conference.
In concluding remarks he anticipated protests to follow the decision, but warned: “True and lasting change does not come from violence but from exercising our voices and our votes.”
Afterwards a march was held to the state capitol and members of Robinson’s family spoke. .
Robinson’s death sparked weeks of protests in the city. In the days afterwards hundreds of school children from the city left their classes and staged a large occupation in the state capitol building..
The decision not to prosecute officer Kenny follows similar rulings in the cases of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri and Eric Garner in New York, where the officers responsible for the deaths of unarmed black men were not charged.
Kenny has remained silent since Robinson’s death, despite supportive public statements from his family members and Madison police chief Mike Koval. Koval has also acknowledged the similarities in the Robinson case to that of Michael Brown in Ferguson.
Robinson’s death was not the first fatal incident officer Kenny was involved in. In 2007 Kenny shot dead 48 year-old Ronald Brandon who waved a pellet gun at Kenny after calling 911. Brandon’s wife said he was drunk at the time. Kenny was cleared of any wrongdoing and awarded a medal of valor by the department. The incident was branded a “suicide by cop”.
During his tenure as District Attorney, which began in 2010, Ismael Ozanne has investigated seven fatal shootings by police, involving 13 officers. Ozanne has not brought charges in any of these cases, according to local news.
Under Wisconsin state legislation enacted in April 2014 all fatal incidents at the hands of police must be investigated by the DCI, an outside agency run by the Wisconsin department of justice. The Guardian has revealed that one of the senior DCI investigators involved in the Robinson case was previously a member of the Madison police force.
‘There are unanswered questions’
On a grey-skied and windy day in Madison Tony Robinson’s family spoke with journalists in front of the Social Justice Center on Williamson Street, less than a block from where he was killed, after the district attorney’s decision was announced. Clergy stood by dressed in vestments, acting as an anchor for those in mourning and as a signal to all that the intentions of those who gathered were peaceful.
John Loevy, the family’s attorney, told reporters of some of the issues he had found with the case, including that Kenny’s statements had been “inconsistent.”
“There are a number of unanswered questions. The evidence suggests that the police officer was told not to go into the house at all. And he went into the building and created a a confrontation. That led to an unnecessary death.”
Loevy said the video from Kenny’s dashboard camera showed him firing his final shot. “It shows a police officer outside the building, firing for a seventh time, a seventh shot into the building, a bullet that hit Tony Robinson in a downward trajectory and killed him. That makes no sense. Why the police officer would be outside the building firing into the building, killing an unarmed young man?”
Loevy told reporters that the family had received a stack of documentation from the district attorney just after his announcement and would review all of it.
Robinson’s mother, Andrea Irwin, wore black and did not address the press. His grandmother, Sharon Irwin, was visibly upset. “I just want to tell you about my grandson because he’s been slandered from the beginning, and he was set up. I wear his sweater because this is the only comfort that I have left. I don’t have the option to hold him any more. And I want you to know that I miss him and really love him.
“I just want to say: this is politics and not justice.”
About 200 people filled Williamson Street in front of the scene of Robinson’s death. Shortly after the press conference ended Robinson’s mother led the crowd in a solemn march towards the state capitol. People chanted “no justice, no peace” and legal observers in turquoise vests accompanied the march.
Olga Ennis, a neighbor who knew Robinson and saw his body dragged out of the house the night of the shooting, was at the start of the rally. She spoke with the Guardian from her doorstep, explaining that she had attended high school with Ozanne and was sorry for his decision.
“I don’t think he did that with his heart. I think he did it out of pressure, to protect his job.” But she added it would make the community’s children more scared. “Who do we call to protect us, y’know? Who do you trust now?”