White officer won’t face charges in biracial man’s shooting death

MADISON, Wis. — A Wisconsin police officer who fatally shot an unarmed biracial teenager in March, sparking several days of peaceful protests, will not be charged, a prosecutor said on Tuesday.

Officer Matt Kenny used justified lethal force in the shooting of Tony Robinson, 19, who struck the 12-year police veteran in the head on March 6, Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne said.

“I conclude that this tragic and unfortunate death was the result of a lawful use of deadly police force and that no charges should be brought against officer Kenny,” Ozanne said in a 25-minute recitation of the facts of the case, in which he repeatedly mopped his face.

The shooting in Madison, Wisconsin’s capital, was one of a number of officer-involved deaths that have led to increased scrutiny of police use of force in the United States, particularly against young black men.

Ozanne said he was sorry for Robinson’s death and that he shares concerns of many Americans about racial profiling by law enforcement officers. He said he is biracial, like Robinson, and that he also fears being singled out by police because of the color of his skin.

Kenny’s attorney said the decision was appropriate, while Robinson’s family members expressed disappointment.

A protest march was planned for the afternoon and police warned that there had been credible threats against officers if the district attorney decided not to bring charges.

Ozanne said Kenny was responding to multiple emergency calls reporting that a man had battered someone and was dodging traffic in the street. Robinson’s friends called 911 to say they were scared of him because he was acting violently and was on drugs.

Ozanne said Kenny followed Robinson into a dwelling and shot him seven times after the teen struck Kenny in the head.

The prosecutor’s announcement came days after the U.S. Justice Department announced a civil rights investigation into the Baltimore police department’s use of force to determine if there are patterns of discriminatory policing.

Riots broke out in the streets of Baltimore over the April 19 death of Freddie Gray, 25, who died after suffering a spinal injury while in police custody. Baltimore’s chief prosecutor has charged six police officers in Gray’s death.

Robinson’s death was investigated by Wisconsin’s Department of Justice, which turned over its reports to the prosecutor.

The fatal shooting prompted large but orderly demonstrations in Madison. The city of 240,000 people about 80 miles west of Milwaukee is nearly four-fifths white and 7 percent African-American, according to U.S. Census figures.

Last year, Robinson pleaded guilty to armed robbery and was put on probation. Sentencing documents show it was his first brush with the law, and he was not the armed person in the group that committed the robbery.

Kenny has been on paid administrative leave during the investigation. In 2007, he was involved in a fatal shooting that was found to be justified.

Outside the building where Ozanne spoke, Robinson’s grandmother Sharon Irwin said she had wanted the case to go to trial.

“All I want is due process, for 12 people to decide. Change must come or we are going to go down together,” she said.

“Now we just have to move forward and continue to work with law enforcement so that if this happens again things will be handled differently,” said Bishop Harold Rayford, president of the African American Council of Churches in Madison, who gathered with a few dozen people outside of the gray building where Robinson was shot and killed.

Madison Police told city aldermen that they would arrest protesters who “actively or passively resist” police attempts to escort them away from a defined protest area.

Capt. Kristen Roman told the aldermen that police had received information from reliable sources that threats to shoot and kill officers had been made, in case the district attorney decided not to bring charges.