Police officer shoots, kills black teen Anthony Robinson in Wisconsin

PROTESTERS carrying signs reading “Black Lives Matter” have gathered hours after an officer fatally shot a 19-year-old black unarmed teenage boy, who authorities said assaulted the officer in the man’s apartment.

Police Chief Mike Koval said the man was shot Friday night after an altercation in which the officer was knocked down by a blow to the head. Chief Koval did not know whether the man was armed, but said “initial findings at the scene did not reflect a gun or anything of that nature that would have been used by the subject.” The officer’s name and race has not been released.

Authorities also did not release the name of the victim, who died at a hospital. But Sun Prairie High School Superintendent Tim Culver said in a statement that it was Tony Robinson, who graduated in 2014.

Dozens gathered outside the Dane County Police Department on Saturday chanting and holding signs that read, “Black Lives Matter” - a slogan adopted by activists and protesters around the United States after recent police-involved deaths of unarmed black men in Ferguson, Missouri, and the New York City borough of Staten Island.

“My son has never been a violent person. And to die in such a violent, violent way, it baffles me,” said Andrea Irwin, who told WKOW-TV on Friday night that she is Robinson’s mother.

The state Department of Justice’s Division of Criminal Investigation is investigating the shooting under a 2014 Wisconsin law that requires police departments to have outside agencies probe officer-involved deaths. State Attorney General Brad Schimel said the department will not share details of the investigation with the public until it is finished.

“We are resolved that the result of that investigation will be one in which the public can have confidence,” he added.

Madison, about 130 kilometres west of Milwaukee, is the state capital and home to the University of Wisconsin’s flagship campus. About seven per cent of the city’s 243,000 residents are black.

Chief Koval said police were called about 6.30 pm on Friday because a man was jumping into traffic. A second call to police said the man was “responsible for a battery,” Chief Koval said.

The officer went to an apartment, which neighbors said was Robinson’s, and forced his way inside after hearing a disturbance. Chief Koval said the officer was assaulted by the 19-year-old and then fired at him. Chief Koval said he believes more than one shot was fired.

Grant Zimmerman said Robinson would run between his apartment and his roommate’s mother’s house across the street: “He runs back and forth across the street all the time, even in the middle of traffic.”