Chattanooga Times Free Press

Officers used excessive force when shooting man 59 times

- BY KATE BRUMBACK

ATLANTA — Law enforcemen­t officers used excessive force when they shot a schizophre­nic Georgia man at least 59 times in August 2016 and then tried to cover up their actions by tampering with evidence, lawyers for his mother assert in a federal civil rights lawsuit filed Wednesday.

Officers serving an arrest warrant broke down the front door of an apartment in East Point and “without cause or provocatio­n” began “spraying” the inside of an East Point apartment with bullets, killing 26-year-old Jamarion Rashad Robinson, lawyers for his mother, Monteria Najuda Robinson, wrote in the lawsuit. The officers were aware Jamarion Robinson had been diagnosed with schizophre­nia but failed to investigat­e his mental health status before trying to arrest him and weren’t properly trained to arrest people with psychiatri­c conditions, the lawsuit says.

Law enforcemen­t agencies whose officers were named in the lawsuit either declined to comment or didn’t respond Wednesday to emails seeking comment.

The Georgia Bureau of Investigat­ion said in a news release the day after the shooting that gunfire erupted when members of a U.S. Marshals Service task force made contact with Robinson inside the apartment. Witnesses and videos show officers gave numerous verbal commands for Robinson to put down a weapon, the GBI said.

GBI agents found a handgun and multiple spent rounds “believed to be associated with Robinson,” the release said.

East Point police said after the shooting that Robinson was suspected of shooting at Atlanta officers about 10 days earlier on July 27, 2016.

Andrew M. Stroth, a Chicago-based attorney representi­ng Robinson’s mother, said he doesn’t believe Robinson fired at Atlanta officers. He also said the narrative provided by police about Robinson’s shooting is not consistent with witness accounts that he said he and others have gathered.

“We’re fighting to make sure the individual officers that made up the task force are held responsibl­e for their unjustifie­d and unconstitu­tional actions,” Stroth said. “In addition, we’re seeking reform of the policies and procedures of these department­s. You’ve got a group of rogue officers unconstitu­tionally violating folks’ rights in Atlanta.”

Monteria Robinson said her son was a biology major at Tuskegee University, where he played football. She remembered him as a funny and caring son who called his grandmothe­r every day. He was diagnosed in December 2015 with paranoid schizophre­nia, she said.

“Please do not ignore my plea because I am just another black mother suffering through what has become far too common an occurrence for black families here in this nation,” she said at a news conference on the steps of the federal courthouse in Atlanta.

The lawsuit says officers knocked loudly on the front door of the apartment multiple times and then broke the door down and began shooting without knowing how many people were inside.

At least one officer then went up to a second-floor landing, where Robinson’s body lay and took steps to cover up the officers’ actions, including setting off a flash bang grenade, firing two bullets into his dead body, handcuffin­g him, putting an oxygen mask on him and moving his body to the first floor. Those actions were taken to make it difficult or impossible to accurately reconstruc­t the shooting, the lawsuit says.

The lawsuit was filed against eight named law enforcemen­t officers from a number of different law enforcemen­t agencies, as well as 11 unidentifi­ed officers. It alleges that the officers violated Robinson’s constituti­onal rights, using excessive force, manipulati­ng evidence and falsifying reports.

The lawsuit seeks “substantia­l actual or compensato­ry damages” for violations of state law and Robinson’s constituti­onal rights, as well as punitive damages and attorney fees.

 ?? THE ASSOCIATED PRESS ?? Monteria Robinson, mother of Jamarion Robinson, who was schizophre­nic and shot by police in August 2016, stands with her lawyer, Andrew M. Stroth, as he speaks to reporters Wednesday outside the federal courthouse in Atlanta.
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Monteria Robinson, mother of Jamarion Robinson, who was schizophre­nic and shot by police in August 2016, stands with her lawyer, Andrew M. Stroth, as he speaks to reporters Wednesday outside the federal courthouse in Atlanta.

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