Police Brutality / Individual record
Tony Robinson
Unarmed 19-year-old Tony Robinson was shot and killed by Madison officer Matt Kenny inside an apartment building on March 6, 2015.
- Record ID
- PB-121
- Incident date
- March 6, 2015
- Outcome
- Fatal
- Location
- Madison, WI
- Agency
- Madison Police Department
- Category
- Fatal on-duty police shooting
- Age (reported)
- 19
What happened
Madison police were called to Williamson Street following reports of a young man behaving erratically and a disturbance. Officer Matt Kenny went into the building at 1125 Williamson Street, encountered Tony Robinson in a stairwell and fired seven shots. Robinson was unarmed. Witnesses, including people who knew him, described the difficult circumstances preceding the shooting, and his family demanded an independent investigation and release of the underlying records. The death led to major Madison demonstrations and heightened scrutiny of police response to mental-health crises, officer entry tactics and use of deadly force. The Department of Justice collected investigative records, while the city later published extensive police files and officer training documents.
Investigation & findings
The Wisconsin investigation was referred to the Dane County district attorney, who declined criminal charges in May 2015. The lack of charges is not a finding that the family or community's concerns were baseless.
Washington Post Fatal Force v2; 2015–2024
Source record details
- Source incident ID
- 203
- Race code in source
- B
- Race source method
- not_available
- Gender (source)
- male
- Armed status (source)
- unarmed
- Flee status (source)
- foot
- Agency IDs (source)
- 322
Sources & records
- Primary source
- Additional source
- Methodology and national police killings trackingMapping Police Violence · Dataset/methodology
- Fatal Force v2 — fatal on-duty police shootings, 2015–2024The Washington Post · Dataset
- Fatal Force methodology and data limitationsThe Washington Post · Methodology