Report: Wisconsin Cop Fatally Shoots Black Man, Prompting Protests
On Friday night, a police officer in Madison, Wisconsin shot and killed a black 19-year-old named Anthony "Tony" Robinson, Reuters reports. An initial search of the scene indicated that Robinson was unarmed.
Madison Police Chief Mike Koval told reporters that, around 6:30 p.m., the officer responded to complaints of a disturbance. Koval said Madison police had received calls about a man who had "battered someone" and who had gone out into the street, disrupting traffic.
Koval said that the responding officer heard a "disturbance" in an apartment and forced his way in, where, after "mutual combat," the officer shot Robinson in the head, the Los Angeles Times reports. Robinson died of his wounds at a hospital.
"The initial finding at the scene did not reflect a gun or anything of that nature that would have been used by the subject," Koval said.
The Wisconsin State Journal reports that demonstrators from the Young, Gifted and Black Coalition gathered at the scene of the shooting, eventually making their way to the Madison City County building.
Protesters moving from scene of #Madison officer-involved shooting to downtown city-county building. #WKOW pic.twitter.com/jlbfMJZG4F
— Ed Reams (@edreamsWKOW) March 7, 2015
Mayor Paul Soglin told the Journal that there would be an outside investigation of the shooting, in addition to the one conducted by the state Department of Justice's Division of Criminal Investigation.
Madison, WI sit in at city county building! #BlackLivesMatter #FergusonToMadison pic.twitter.com/F0u5Ur2HLM
— Jfr3$h (@JessforPrezz) March 7, 2015
17-year-old Jack Spaulding, who said he was one of Robinson's best friends, described the slain man as "one of the happiest people I know." Spaulding told the Journal, "I still can't even fully wrap my head around this."