Sandy MaloneAtlanta, GA – A federal grand jury indicted two members of a U.S. Marshals Fugitive Task Force on murder charges Tuesday for the shooting of 26-year-old Jamarion Robinson five years ago.
The shooting occurred on Aug. 5, 2016 after members of the U.S. Marshal Service SE Regional Fugitive Task Force serving felony warrants for Robinson’s arrest made entry to his girlfriend’s apartment in Parkside at Camp Creek off Washington Road, WAGA reported.
The task force had warrants from incidents in both Gwinnett County and the Atlanta Police Department.
Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) said the day after the shooting that witnesses and videos indicated the officers gave repeated commands for Robinson to drop a weapon, WMAZ reported.
Officers reported that Robinson shot at them three times and they returned fire.
Robinson’s gun was recovered at the scene, WMAZ reported.
The medical examiner’s report said Robinson had been shot 59 times and had 76 gunshot wounds, WXIA reported.
Robinson’s mother said her son had recently been diagnosed with schizophrenia and that the authorities were aware of that when they tried to serve the warrants, WAGA reported.
She said she had filed one of the police reports that initiated the warrants but said she called authorities because she wanted to get her son mental health help, not have him arrested.
Robinson had been a football player at Clark Atlanta University and Tuskegee University, WXIA reported.
There was no bodycam video of the shooting because at the time, policy did not allow members of federal task forces to wear them.
A cell phone video (video below) filmed from outside the residence by a bystander showed a crowd of law enforcement officers surrounding the doorway of the home.
“Show us your hands,” an officer shouted in the video a split second before gunfire erupted.
A moment later, an officer yelled at Robinson to “put the gun down, son, and come out,” the video showed.
The video showed officers frantically knocking on the next-door-neighbor’s house to evacuate anyone who was inside just before there were more gunshots.
The man filming observed that the man inside the house was shooting out at the officers and said he was going to post the video to his Instagram.
Officers yelled at people filming the gunfight to go inside their houses but the video continued and caught audio of multiple bursts of gunfire that continued over a more than two-minute period.
Robinson died at the scene, WXIA reported.
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) said it launched an investigation after the shooting, but no charges were brought against any of the officers involved in the shooting, nor was any explanation for the incident given to the public.
The Robinson family filed a lawsuit that named seven different law enforcement agencies in January of 2018, the Associated Press reported.
The lawsuit said a private detective hired by Robinson’s mother had uncovered evidence of gunshots fired straight into the ground where her son’s body had fallen, NPR reported.
“Over 90 rounds were fired at my son, flash-bang grenades were thrown at him, landed on him burning him,” Monteria Robinson told reporters at a press conference in June of 2020.
“Somebody walked up the stairs, stood over him, and shot down into his body two more times,” she continued. “After that he was handcuffed and drug down a flight of stairs.”
In December of 2018, then-Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard filed a lawsuit against DOJ that accused federal authorities of refusing to share their investigation into the shooting, and blocking prosecutors from interviewing the officers involved in the raid.
Howard said DOJ had refused to turn over any documents despite numerous requests over a two-year period via the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), the Associated Press reported.
“We’ve never done anything like this,” Howard said about the lawsuit. “Our hope was that the federal authorities would cooperate and provide this office and this family with all the information about this incident. I cannot understand why they have not done it.”
“It has now been 875 days since the officers killed Mr. Robinson, and the DOJ has yet to provide any of the documents or evidence requested and has failed to provide any investigative reports relating to Mr. Robinson’s death,” according to the complaint, NBC News reported.
The status of the case remained unchanged while Howard was in office, but the new prosecutor, Fani Willis, promised she would make something happen, NPR reported.
Federal prosecutors said there had been several delays in taking the case before a grand jury, but in October, they were finally able to present their evidence.
The grand jury handed down an eight-count indictment on Oct. 26 against U.S. Marshals Service Assistant Chief Inspector Eric Heinze and Clayton County Police Officer Kristopher Hutchens, NPR reported.
Inspector Heinze and Officer Hutchens were both charged with felony murder, aggravated assault, burglary, making false statements, and violation of oath by a public officer.
The Fulton County District Attorney’s Office declined to comment on the charges on Tuesday night and said it was waiting to receive a copy of the indictment, NPR reported.
You can see video from the shooting below:
Holly Matkin
