Black teenager fatally shot by white officer was unarmed: US police

The 19-year-old African American who was shot and killed by a white officer in the US state of Wisconsin on Friday night was unarmed, a senior police official says.

Madison’s police Chief Mike Koval said on Saturday that Officer Matt Kenny, 45, shot Tony Robinson after the teenager knocked him down by a blow to the head. Robinson died at a hospital.

“He was unarmed. That’s going to make this all the more complicated for the investigators, for the public to accept,” Koval said.

He added that the officer has over 12 years of experience and was involved in a 2007 shooting but was cleared of any wrongdoing.

“My son has never been a violent person. And to die in such a violent, violent way, it baffles me,” said Andrea Irwin, Robinson’s mother.

The fatal shooting comes at a time that US police are under harsh criticism for using brutal tactics against people of color and minorities.

The killing of several unarmed black men by white police officers in recent months and decisions by grand juries not to indict the officers triggered large-scale protests across the United States.

There is also widespread racial disparity in the US criminal justice system. According to a study by the Sentencing Project research group, one in three black males are likely to be sentenced to prison sometime during their life. The figure for white men is one in 17.