Posted on 03/09/2015 6:16:02 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
The uncle of the 19-year-old who was fatally shot by a police officer in Madison, Wisconsin, over the weekend said that his nephew "just wanted to be loved."
Tony Robinson Jr., who was known to his family as Tyrell, was fatally shot by a police officer on Friday and the incident is now the subject of a state Department of Justice investigation.
Robinson's mother is white and his father is African American, and at a news conference this afternoon, Robinson's uncle, Turin Carter, spoke out on behalf of the family about how this is a universal issue that should be understood by people of all races.
"A lot of his identity was formed because of his racial ambiguity," Carter said.
"Tyrell felt a misfit for most of his life and that's why we became close," he said, while his sister -- Robinson's mother -- stood behind him.
Robinson's death comes after a growing list of cases where unarmed teens were killed at the hands of white men, and Carter said that though the parallels to the shooting deaths of Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown are inevitable, there are significant differences because of his nephew's mixed race.
"I absolutely remember hashtagging Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown," Carter said of the outpouring on social media. "It's surreal to realize that now my nephew is now a hashtag."
"We don't want to just stop at black lives matter. ... Tyrell is a mixture of everything. You can't look at him and say he's black," Carter said.
Carter thanked the droves of supporters who have been talking about the case on social media and attending rallies but urged all involved to make sure that they were not anti-law enforcement in their demonstrations.
"We appreciate the police and we understand the necessity for them but once again that does not excuse what happened," Carter said.
"It takes one bullet from a trained gunman to end a life -- it takes one bullet -- and we know how many were fired," Carter said. Police have not officially confirmed how many shots were fired.
Madison Police Chief Mike Koval told ABC News that he spoke to Robinson's grandmother on the night of the shooting but has been giving the family space. When asked what he would say to the teen's grieving parents, he told ABC News: "I don't have a good answer except to say I'm sorry."
"I apologize for what has happened to their son, their grandson, their nephew, their friend, their family member, their sibling," Koval said. "I apologize to the community that we're all coping with this under these circumstances."
He’s not being a coward... a death of a young person is a sad event. Even if the young person caused the death by the way they acted.
Likely the character content of this pair (Jr & Sr) is minimal.
No, this is not just about race just as the Uncle said.
Quotes from the deceased’s Twitter account:
“I need a bae to take care of me when I get off the drugs.”
“I’m a real N**** from the start till the casket close.”
He was on three year probation from an armed home invasion last April when police caught him and two fellow thugs who were wrapping up an armed robbery in a home with a shotgun.
Looks like living the thug life caught up with him.
It depends on individual, for I have some mixed background and I do not even have that issue and I am a proud American and I work for a living, he was raised around an ignorant culture and neighborhood and was not squared away and that’s why he was the way he was, and for the record I know a good chunk of predominately white families that had kids still get into the so called ghetto culture growing up, Little Emeniem’s I called them, I know.
The thing that they refuse to do is admit what the Travon, Brown, and this case have in common is that a thug attacked an armed person of authority....DUMB MOVE
Nobody seems to be looking at or asking this question .
Why should we be having this issue of unarmed black youts feel they’re entitled to challange and attack a police officer doing their job during an arrest ?
Who,why, and how was that put that into their heads ? Could it because of the use of the preaching comming from the “Bully Pulpit” ? And the continuous mendacious inflamatory racial fabrications generated to support those assertions ?.
Such as “ Hands Up Don’t Shoot” “ Because You’re so deprived laws or common morality doesn’t apply to you ?
Or at least a reported score of racial attacks resulting in deaths (murders) by black youths on white,asians, and hispanics . Each attributed as retribution to a reported killing in cold blood of a black youth by a “white hispanic.
He was a good boy./sarc.
He was shot down like a thug dog that he was.
Watch prime-time TV or look at any magazine advert. Racial "ambiguity" is the fashion. Society goes out of its way to celebrate them. Feeling a misfit because of it is a cop-out.
The sh.. for brains chief of police APOLOGIZES!!! to the family?!!!!? What the .... is wrong with this jerk!!! Their idiot kid assaults a cop, gets himself killed, and the cop’s boss basically says his own guy is guilty? Good grief!!
“Unarmed” must be the most over used word in the English language. When you assault someone they should not be expected to stand there and allow you to pound on them.
If the apology is taken the wrong way, that’s bad. But what was intended was the message that police officers never WANT to take the life of another and it’s a sorry situation when they have to do it.
But Robinson wasn’t unarmed during the last home invasion robbery he was convicted of:
Robinson was arrested last April following an armed home invasion at a Madison residence, according to police records. Cops were called to the scene around 6 AM by a neighbor who “spotted several men, one of them armed with a long gun, entering an apartment building,” according to a police report.
Robinson was one of five suspects (each of whom was 18 at the time of their arrest) busted for the home invasion. In October, he pleaded guilty to armed robbery and was later sentenced to six months in jail, though a judge stayed the execution of the custodial term. Robinson was also placed on three years probation, which he began serving in late-December.
Robinson was also the defendant in a paternity action filed last year by a 24-year-old Madison woman. The civil matter ended with a paternity judgment being served on Robinson
On his Twitter account ... On Thursday, he tweeted, “I need a bae to take care of me when I’m off the drugs.” In other tweets, the teen—whose handle included the name “Tony Montana”—frequently referred to marijuana and described himself as a “Real n!gga from the start till the casket shut.” Last June, Robinson made reference to the ankle monitor he was outfitted with after being released on bond in the armed robbery case. “Big bro wants me to come to new york and live with him after my bracelet comes off, hey why not,” he wrote.
“I need a bae to take care of me “
BAE? Well he should have gone to work for British Aerospace and forgot about the thug life!!! ;)
But this is Madison, so every public functionary has to use lib-speak. The chief should have backed his officer and simply uttered the usual "we regret taking lives, but as far as we know Officer ....used sound judgment." And left it at that.
Sounds like he was a gang member.
“”I absolutely remember hashtagging Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown,” Carter said. . .”
Good Lord.. honoring Saint Skittles and Fat Boy Brown. . .good Lord. . .
Why didn't the chief say what you said instead of groveling to the media and Amish?
What you said was clear and unambiguous.
And how much deader is the lad due to the extra shots?
If a white kid had behaved exactly the same way, would the officer NOT have shot him?
By George, I think you've got it! Sadly, that attitude seems to prevail.
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