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发帖数: 29846 | 1 Chief: Wisconsin officer cleared in shooting will patrol
By SCOTT BAUER | June 3, 2015 | 7:15 PM EDT
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A white Wisconsin police officer was exonerated
Wednesday by an internal investigation of his fatal shooting of an unarmed
19-year-old biracial man, a move that follows prosecutors declining to file
charges and clears the way for him to get his job back.
The Madison Police Department issued a summary of its finding that Officer
Matt Kenny did not violate its deadly force policies in the March 6 shooting
death of 19-year-old Tony Robinson. The conclusion of the internal decision
comes one month after Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne decided
not to charge Kenny in the case.
The exoneration clears the way for Kenny, a 12-year veteran of the
department who had been on paid leave since the shooting, to return to work.
"He's looking forward to working to getting back and doing the job he loves,
" said Kenny's attorney Jim Palmer, who is also executive director of the
Wisconsin Professional Police Association. Palmer said he spoke with Kenny,
who was "pleased" with the decision.
Madison Police Chief Mike Koval said Kenny will receive psychiatric
counseling through the department and be eased back into work by first
assisting with training for delivering first aid and the mounted horse
patrol.
There is no timeline for when Kenny will resume his previous work as a
street patrol officer, Koval said at a news conference. Koval said it's not
in the best interests of Kenny, officers who back him up, or the community
to rush his return to the street. But Koval stressed that 46-year-old Kenny
will not be forced to retire, resign or accept a desk position against his
will.
"To those who say I should relocate him, I really don't have a branch office
in Butte, Montana, like the FBI," Koval said. "Nor would I banish him to
such. He is a viable member of the Madison Police Department."
Threats have been made against both Kenny and the Robinson family. And while
Kenny's safety is a concern, his attorney said "we anticipate he will be
able to successfully be able to return to patrol."
A summary of the investigation does not reveal any details about how the
Police Department reached its conclusion, but Koval said it showed no
policies were violated.
"If everybody's concerned about the appropriateness of the use of deadly
force, I think that question has now been unequivocally answered in two
different reviewing capacities," Koval said.
Kenny was also involved in a 2007 fatal shooting in which he was also
cleared of any wrongdoing.
Kenny is reviewing the internal investigation report, as is allowed under
the law, and will allow the Police Department to release it as early as
Thursday, Palmer said. Kenny has not spoken publicly since the shooting.
A call to the home of Robinson's mother seeking comment on the decision rang
unanswered.
Chris Ahmuty, the executive director of the ACLU of Wisconsin, said the
police department's policies or investigations are deficient. Ahmuty, citing
the fact that four other people have been shot and killed by Madison police
since 2012, called for an investigation of how Madison police reviews such
incidents to determine if its process is credible.
Kenny shot and killed Robinson in an apartment house stairwell after
Robinson, who was high on hallucinogenic mushrooms and had accosted others
that night, struck the officer in the head.
Kenny had responded to 911 calls and found the apartment house door open. He
heard what he believed to be a disturbance in the upstairs apartment and
thought someone was being attacked, he told investigators.
He drew his firearm and began to climb the stairs. He was near the top when
he announced himself as a police officer. Robinson appeared and punched him
in the head, he said.
Kenny said he was worried Robinson would knock him down the stairs, take his
gun, shoot him and kill whoever was in the apartment. Kenny told an
investigator he couldn't use nonlethal force because of "space and time
considerations."
Protests after the shooting, and Ozanne's decision not to criminally charge
Kenny, have all been peaceful, unlike some of the demonstrations that
followed the high-profile deaths of black men in Ferguson, Missouri, and
Baltimore in the past year. |
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