Two law enforcement officials charged in the 2016 shooting death of Jamarion Robinson, an East Point, GA man will be in court this morning for an arraignment and plea hearing. Police officers Eric Heinze and Kristopher Hutchens were charged with felony murder, burglary, aggravated assault and making false statements in connection with the shooting on Oct. 27, 2021, five years after the initial incident.
“What we all want to happen now is to send these killer cops to jail and throw away the key,” said the victim’s mother, Monteria Robinson as she announced that an indictment of the officers had been handed in the case on Monday, Feb. 28, 2022.
On Aug. 5, 2016, Jamarion Rashad Robinson, a 26-year-old Black Tuskeegee University student and was killed in East Point, GA after having been shot 76 times by police as they attempted to arrest him.
Robinson who had been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia was killed when at least 14 members of a Fugitive Taskforce from at least seven different agencies forced their way into his girlfriend’s apartment to serve a warrant for his arrest.
The warrant was being served on behalf of the Gwinnett County police and the Atlanta Police Department, and authorities said they had sought his arrest after he pointed a gun at police during a previous encounter. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) stated that Robinson had been repeatedly ordered to put down a weapon and that officers who had been involved in the shooting reported Robinson fired at them three times.
The case was highlighted as an example of use of force by law enforcement officers after they were shot at, a lack of knowledge by police who interact with people who have a mental illness, a lack of transparency and accountability surrounding the actions of police officers, and a lack of use of body cameras by police and U.S. Marshals when serving arrest warrants.
The case has also served as an example for defunding police departments and reapportioning funding to specialized agencies for addressing community issues including mental illness.
In an interview following the shooting Robinson’s grandmother, Beverly Nixon, told the outlet that her grandson was bipolar and schizophrenic.
“He told me last night that he was seeing things and he heard things,” Nixon said of the night prior to the shooting. “He kept saying something was trying to kill him.”
In an interview with rolling out, Robinson’s mother Monteria Robinson said the family has yet to get answers. Ms. Robinson said the FBI and the U.S. Attorney General’s Office have yet to get back to her about the shooting. She’s also still baffled by the absence of body cameras during the incident, particularly since federal agents were on the scene.
On Oct. 27, 2021,
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