Coroner classifies death of Keeven Robinson as ‘homicide’
21st May 2018 · 0 Comments
The U.S. Department of Justice and the Louisiana State Police are investigating the death of a 22-year-old Black man at the hands of four white Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office narcotics detectives on Thursday, May 10.
Initially, the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office attributed Robinson’s death to asthma.
JP Sheriff Joseph Lopinto said that Robinson, the target of a drug investigation, drove away from a Shell gas station in the Shrewsbury section of East Jefferson before he was eventually cornered by the four JPSO detectives in a residence’s backyard. After a struggle, he was placed in handcuffs and stopped breathing.
The Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office has asked the Louisiana State Police and the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Civil Rights Task Force to look into the officer-involved killing.
The JPSO also said that its own investigation of the incident is focusing on the question of whether the four plainclothes narcotics detectives used justifiable or excessive force in arresting Robinson.
“Somebody’s family actually lost a life, and I’m very cognizant of that,” Sheriff Lopinto said. “That doesn’t mean our officers did anything wrong or it may mean that they did something wrong. We have to have the ability to get to that conclusion and put that to the district attorney.”
According to the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office, none of the four plainclothes detectives was wearing a body camera at the time of the incident and none of their vehicles were equipped with dash cameras.
The Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office did not release the names of the four detectives involved in the incident but several media outlets reported that two of those detectives have been named as defendants in several unrelated federal civil rights lawsuits that accuse them of using excessive force.
Led by Robinson’s loved ones, justice advocates and community leaders on Monday, May 14, hundreds of protesters marched from the spot in Shrewsbury where the four JPSO narcotics detectives apprehended the 22-year-old after a car chase and his life ended after a brief struggle.
While those who knew Robinson said he had his share of issues, they added that he didn’t deserve to die.
“He was a good, respectable child,” Steven Jackson, Keeven’s father, told FOX 9 News. “All this police brutality has to stop. You got someone in custody, take him to jail. They’re already scared. Why do you think they’re running? They don’t want the violence.”
Throughout the march, protesters chanted slogans like “No Justice, No Peace” and “Enough is enough.”
Robinson’s family called last week for an independent probe of the incident and joined others at the march in demanding that JPSO deputies be required to use body cameras and dash cams.
“That would make this family more comfortable with what’s going on,” Hester Hilliard, the family’s attorney, said of an independent investigation after learning that Robinson’s death had been classified as a homicide. “Today is just as hard as Thursday for this family. They’re grieving and today they had to find out that Keeven lost his life at the hands of another, and that;s very, very hard for them.”
The victim’s family and friends told FOX 8 News that they hope the protest helps to bring about change.
“I hope it accomplishes that this doesn’t happen to anybody else’s child. It’s hard. I know the mother real well. She’s grieving real hard, but I hope it comes to a stop, not just in New Orleans but all over the country,” said Keeven’s relative, Ernest Jackson. “We got to try to come together as a whole — Black, white Hispanic. It’s not just about the Black thing.”
Steven Jackson said his spirits were lifted by the large number of people who turned out Monday evening to demand justice for his son.
“It’s hopeful and it makes you feel good, but justice still hasn’t been served,” he told The New Orleans Advocate. “We already had an idea of what happened.”
The Jefferson Parish Coroner’s Office ruled Keeven Robinson’s death a homicide by asphyxiation on Monday, May 14.
J.P. Coroner Dr. Gerry Cvitanovich said in his preliminary findings that at least one of the four plainclothes narcotics detectives had put enough pressure on Robinson’s neck during the arrest to asphyxiate him.
Forensic pathologists found “significant traumatic injuries” to the soft tissues of Robinson’s neck.
“Our initial autopsy findings, and I’m going to be brief, reveal significant traumatic injuries to the neck, okay? The soft tissue of the neck. These findings are consistent with compressional asphyxia, and we’re confident that at the end of our process that that is going to be the cause of death. Regarding manner of death, at this point, manner of death is homicide,” Dr. Gerry Cvitanovich said.
NAACP officials are demanding that all four JPSO narcotics detectives involved in the incident be charged with murder.
Michael McClanahan, the NAACP’s state conference president, issued a plea for anyone with information about the incident to come forward.
Gaylor Spiller, head of the Jefferson Parish Branch of the NAACP, told reporters Tuesday that in addition to being arrested and charged with murder, the four JPSO narcotics detectives should not be paid while the investigation is being conducted.
“We are calling for love and peace, but we are also calling for the arrest and charges against the police officers,” she said. “They do not deserve the citizens’ money.”
‘That young man didn’t have to die the day he did,” Spiller added.
“While it pales in comparison to the grief of Keeven’s loved ones, I continue to bear the weight that comes when a young Black person loses his or her life at the hands of law enforcement,” U.S. Rep. Cedric Richmond, Chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, said in a statement Wednesday. “I continue to pray for Keeven’s family during this difficult time and admire the strength and poise they have displayed. I commend the hundreds of citizens who have exercised their constitutional right to protest, and who desire more from our leaders and those who swear an oath to serve and protect.
“The current U.S. Department of Justice has let us down before when it has come to police-involved murders, so I am encouraged by the coordinated investigation by the Sheriff’s Office, State Police and the FBI,” Richmond added. “The investigation must be transparent and swift. Unnecessary delay will only breed additional distrust and angst.”
Kissy Kennedy, Keeven’s great aunt, told Nola.com/The Times-Picayune that what happened to her great nephew is unacceptable.
“Now his mother has to visit a gravesite,” Kennedy said. “We’ve come to speak out because our lives matter.”
“I’ve known Keeven all my life,” Luciana Johnson, a friend of Kiwanda Robinson, who lost her only child in the deadly incident. “He didn’t deserve what he got.
“It’s time for them to stop killing our young Black men.”
This article originally published in the May 21, 2018 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
