Andrea Irwin—the mother of Tony Robinson, who died after an altercation with a Madison police officer in March—criticized the treatment her family received from law enforcement following the incident during a community panel discussion Monday.
“Terrorists get better treatment than what my family got,” Irwin said of her treatment. “I was separated from my family, and I was treated as if I had committed a crime.”
The panel, hosted by a Community Response Team focused on increasing community relations with police, included a wide array of people alongside Irwin, from Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne to Brandi Grayson, the co-founder of the Young, Gifted and Black Coalition.
Irwin said police gave her no information and she found out the incident was an officer-involved shooting from a nightly newscast.
“However they try to spin the situation, I believe he was murdered,” she continued, highlighting the last of seven shots Kenny took occurred after Robinson was already on the ground.
In May, Ozanne announced he would not criminally charge Madison Police Department Officer Matt Kenny, who fatally shot Robinson.
Despite complaints from community members in arrest and prosecution rates, Ozanne said he “does not control everything” brought to the district attorney’s office for prosecution.
“We’ve increased the number of people in our diversion program from 350 to 750, and that increase was largely done without any extra resources,” Ozanne said.
Ozanne and other panelists stressed the importance of having effective mental health services to prevent continued increases in the number of inmates in the Dane County Jail.
“While we have a lot of services in Dane County, it is my understanding that the amount of services we have to the amount of people we have has declined,” Sarah Henrickson, Journey Mental Health Care clinical specialist said. “We have a lot of great mental health services for this community, but it’s not accessible to everyone.
UW-Madison Public Policy professor Eileen Harrington, who facilitated the discussion, stressed the importance of giving those affected by policing a voice.
“The Community Response Teams ought to give these people a voice,” she said. “Especially as it pertains to this issues we are discussing tonight.”
