Saturday, March 07, 2015

Mother of Slain Black Teen in Madison Says Death of Her Son ‘Is Not OK and We’re Not Going to Take It’ 
BY LARRY MCSHANE
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Saturday, March 7, 2015, 11:44 AM

The fatal police shooting of a 19-year-old black man during a scuffle inside a Wisconsin apartment set off a night of angry protests on the streets of Madison.

The lethal encounter came after an unidentified officer answered a call reporting a man jumping into traffic Friday evening, with a second call reporting the same man was involved in an assault, police said.

“Initial findings at the scene did not reflect a gun or anything of that nature that would have been used” by the slain teen, said Madison Police Chief Mike Koval.

Koval said the victim, identified by family members as Tony Robinson, assaulted the officer before the shooting. It appears more than one shot was fired during the encounter, the chief said.

“The officer did draw his revolver and subsequently shot the subject,” said Koval. According to the chief, the officer was knocked to the ground by a hard blow to the head before pulling the trigger.

The victim’s distraught mother, Andrea Irwin, told local television station WKOW that she was stunned to learn about his slaying.

“My son has never been a violent person,” she said. “And to die in such a violent, violent way — it baffles me.”

Irwin urged widespread peaceful protest in the wake of the shooting.

“Do I hope that this whole city stands up and turns around and says that this is not OK and we’re not going to take it?” she told WKOW-TV. “Absolutely.”

Demonstrators, changing “Black lives matter!”, gathered at the shooting scene — where they were joined early Saturday by the dead youth’s grandmother.

“You’re not protecting us!” Sharon Irwin shouted at police. “You’re killing us!”

The crowd dispersed without any violence or arrests.

The teen’s mother, Andrea Irwin, said that the death of her son ‘baffles’ her, because Robinson ‘has never been a violent person.’ She also called for widespread peaceful protest in the city.
Madison Mayor Paul Soglin called the shooting “a tragedy beyond description” that was likely to result in “a lot of anger and frustrations, especially from friends.”

Robinson was a 2014 graduate of Sun Prairie High School, in a suburb about 13 miles outside the college town of 240,000 people.

The killing comes on the heels of the fatal shooting of Michael Brown, an unarmed black youth, in Ferguson, Mo., during a confrontation with police, and the Staten Island chokehold death of Eric Garner during an NYPD arrest.

No charges were brought against the police officers in either case, although the Department of Justice found this week that the Ferguson cops created a “toxic” environment with its racist policing policies.

Koval said he was not surprised by the outpouring of anger over the shooting.

“It’s understandable that the reaction at the scene and of some of our citizens is extremely volatile, emotional and upsetting,” he said. “We would urge, obviously, that everyone exercise restraint, calm.”

According to police, the officer followed the suspect to the apartment and forced his way inside after hearing a commotion.

When Robinson assaulted the officer, the fatal shots were fired. The officer reportedly performed CPR on the dying man, who passed away at a nearby hospital.

The officer was also hospitalized after the shooting, police said.

The state Department of Justice’s Division of Criminal Investigation is investigating the shooting as required by state law.

lmcshane@nydailynews.com

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