Allison Geyer
Squad cars and police officers block off the 1100 block of Williamson as a crowd gathers at the scene of the shooting. Dozens of protesters arrived later.
The day after his death, Tony Robinson's blood was still smeared on the porch of the Williamson Street house where a Madison police officer fatally shot him Friday night.
"If you look, you can see a handprint," says Samantha Sorum, a 16-year-old junior at Malcolm Shabazz City High School who was friends with Robinson. "He was fighting for his life."
Robinson, 19, had been hanging out with friends, Sorum says, when Madison Police responded to multiple calls about a "disturbance" in the 1100 block of the East Side neighborhood at about 6:30 p.m.
The 911 calls reported a "subject" -- later identified as Robinson -- who was "jumping in and out of traffic," Madison Police Chief Mike Koval told reporters at a news conference Friday night. Before the first responding officer arrived on the scene, police received another complaint that the same subject had been involved in a battery.
The officer -- later identified as 12-year veteran Matt Kenny -- went to the house where Robinson was thought to be and forced his way in after hearing "what sounded like a disturbance" inside, Koval says.
Kenny was reportedly knocked down by a blow to the head, and in the scuffle, he drew his revolver and shot Robinson. Koval said more than one shot was fired; citizen groups responding to the incident said Robinson was shot five times.
"He was just the happiest person," Sorum says of Robinson, who graduated from Sun Prairie High School in 2014 and planned to attend Madison College. "I can't believe he's gone."
The incident sparked an immediate response from the Madison community, with dozens gathering at the scene of the shooting Friday night and hundreds more organizing demonstrations on Saturday, demanding justice for what many see as a pattern of police using deadly force against unarmed black men and teens.
Detractors on social media were quick to point out that Robinson was arrested for armed robbery in 2014 and pointed to Instagram photos of the teen posing with marijuana.
Eighteen-year-old Erika Gonzalez, a senior at La Follette High School and one of Robinson's friends, says she is worried about people misjudging his character.
"I heard an officer say that Tony had a bad reputation," she says. "They're bringing up stuff that's not even relevant to [Friday] night."
Saturday's demonstrations fell on the anniversary of the first march from Selma to Montgomery, when civil rights activists were attacked by Alabama state troopers.
"This isn't just a black issue," says Brandi Grayson, an organizer of the Madison-based Young, Gifted and Black Coalition. "This is a community issue, a city issue. We are in a fight for our lives."
Members of the coalition led protesters on a march from downtown Madison to the site of the shooting on Williamson Street Saturday afternoon, blocking traffic around the Capitol and on East Washington as the group moved to the east side. Madison Police officers helped direct the flow of traffic.
"Get a job," a passing driver yelled to the group.
"I have a job," a protester shot back, causing a brief ripple of laughter to pass through the somber crowd.
Other drivers honked their support, and neighborhood residents gathered to watch as the group came to a stop in front of the house where Robinson was shot. Police were waiting on the scene to receive the protesters.
Maria Hamilton, the mother of Dontre Hamilton, a schizophrenic man who was shot 14 times by police in Milwaukee, was among those who addressed the crowd.
"Dontre didn't deserve to die. Tony didn't deserve to die," she told the crowd. "They're taking and killing our future."
The relatively calm protest had moments of tension, with demonstrators screaming at the police who stood in a line on the sidewalk in front of the house. But organizers redirected the crowd's energy through songs and chants.
Halen Williams, a black, 15-year-old freshman at Verona Area High School, says what happened to Robinson "could easily have happened to a lot of us."
His father, Danny Williams, says he's coached his son on how to interact with police officers out of fear that an encounter could turn deadly. He says Friday night's events were tragic -- regardless of Robinson's race.
"Right is right and wrong is wrong," Williams says. "If [Robinson] was a white guy, this would be wrong too."
