Tim Poehlmann-Tynan was disturbed by the media frenzy that followed Madison police officer Matt Kenny’s fatal shooting of Tony Robinson last March.
Poehlmann-Tynan felt much of the coverage focused on what Robinson did or didn’t do — not just on the night of the shooting, but several months earlier. Reporters dug into his background, uncovering family problems and past trouble with the law, including the fact that he was on probation for connection with a robbery.
“The way he was portrayed only continued to add harm to an already struggling family,” says Poehlmann-Tynan. “It’s victim blaming.”
Now Poehlmann-Tynan is setting out to give his own take on the life and death of Robinson with a documentary film, 19, The Tony Robinson Shooting, A Case of Deadly Bias.
The film will show that “Matt Kenny is not a hero, and Tony wasn’t this thug,” says Poehlmann-Tynan, a UW-Madison graduate student who works for Youth on Assignment, a nonprofit that trains youth in media production in order to engage the community.
On March 6, Kenny was investigating a call about someone jumping in and out of traffic who was suspected of battering two others. He found Robinson, who was on psychedelic mushrooms, in a Williamson Street apartment, and the two struggled. Kenny told investigators Robinson hit him in the head and, fearing he might be knocked unconscious, shot the unarmed Robinson seven times. Kenny is white and Robinson was biracial.
Kenny was cleared of wrongdoing in the shooting by the district attorney and the police department, but anger over the shooting remains. Last year, there were large protests calling on city officials to address the use of force and a perception of racism among law enforcement. These protests mirrored recent rallies in other cities where white officers have also killed unarmed persons of color.
“It was immediately a racial conflict because it was a white officer — so we had an opportunity to see how the media was going to portray the officer and how the media was going to portray the boy who was shot,” says Poehlmann-Tynan. “[The public] has been duped.”
Poehlmann-Tynan reviewed hours of local and national coverage for the film. “Initially, a lot of [the coverage] was awful because there was so much misinformation,” he says. “Over time, some local outlets changed their framing — like changing Tony’s picture from his mugshot to his high school graduation picture.”
“The more I learned about the story, the more I learned about the people involved, I realized what a small fraction of the story [the media reports] actually covered,” he adds.
The film will include interviews with prosecutors, Robinson’s family members and community leaders and will focus on Robinson’s life, a detailed account of how he died and the protests over his death.
There will also be new information — albeit from off-the-record sources — about Kenny’s history as an officer, says Poehlmann-Tynan. “We were spoon-fed [information about Kenny] — that’s not the whole story,” he says. “I think people will be surprised at what they see.”
The city attorney’s office has asked the police department not to respond to new questions about the incident due to a pending civil lawsuit over the killing.
Shot with digital cameras, the film is set to be shown around Madison in a month, just before the one-year anniversary of Robinson’s death. It will be accompanied with a multimedia website including documents about the case. Poehlmann-Tynan hopes to show the documentary at a film festival in the fall, but eventually it will be available for streaming.
Jivonte Davis, the film’s assistant director, was a friend of Robinson’s. He says working on the film is helping him heal.
“It’s bringing me some closure because I’m able to talk about it,” he says, adding that he hopes viewers will have empathy for those who knew Robinson. “I want them to understand the pain we’re going through. No matter what the police department is saying, what happened was wrong.”
