On the evening of Sept. 5, hundreds of mourners, wearing black and white clothing with blue and orange balloons in tow, converged on the 2500 block of Marion Barry Avenue in memory of Justin Robinson, a violence interrupter shot and killed by police just days earlier. (Cleveland Nelson/The Washington Informer)

As family members requested, the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) released body camera footage from the morning of Justin Robinson’s police-involved killing. 

The videos that are currently online each span more than 18 minutes, with only Robinson’s body, and that of a special police officer on the scene, obscured. However, there’s more than enough on the tape to determine what happened on Sept. 1. 

Some of those who watched the video, like Jawanna Hardy, said it brought her to tears. 

“It’s sad to see our people being treated like that — a violence interrupter too,” said Hardy, founder of Guns Down Friday, an organization dedicated to addressing gun violence and mental illness. “The way the officers handled the situation, they could’ve done better than that. It was so unprofessional, heartbreaking and disgusting the way they treated Justin. It was cold blooded.” 

The body-camera footage, released on Sept. 9, shows officers approaching Robinson’s vehicle, which crashed at a McDonald’s franchise on the 2500 block of Marion Barry Avenue in Southeast, with guns drawn. One of the officers can be heard identifying Robinson, who’s unconscious at the time, as a suspect and mentioning the discovery of a gun as they close in on the car. 

In the minutes leading up to Robinson’s death, one of the officers abrasively asks the special police officer to leave her car and later motions his colleagues to block in Robinson’s car with their department-issued vehicles. As Robinson comes into consciousness, a group of officers surrounding him yell for him to drop his weapon. 

A couple minutes later, after inching closer toward Robinson, they shoot him and pull his lifeless body out of his car. 

At the time Hardy watched the then-newly released video, she had plans in motion for a getaway that would allow the young people who knew Robinson to decompress. That getaway, she said, has been paused for the time being as she works to ensure that those youth don’t reactively participate in criminal activity, like she had seen others threaten to do on social media.  

“I had to pick up a few kids,” Hardy said, emphasizing that she did so on Monday evening before any criminal activity took place. “Their parents didn’t believe what was going on. When someone is killed by police, it brings out so many people of different races. People are tired.” 

MPD Officials Stand on Their Version of Events

On Tuesday, MPD increased police presence throughout the District in response to vandalism and string of burglaries that happened the night before. Affected areas included: Logan Circle, Georgetown and City Center in Northwest; a store along the H Street corridor in Northeast, and a store north of Columbia Heights in Northwest. 

In total, MPD reported six burglaries and six instances of property damage. 

Officers arrested five people for the charges of burglary and fleeing from law enforcement. An MPD spokesperson said the incidents are under investigation. They provided no information about whether the events had any connection to the body camera footage release. 

On Monday, Metropolitan Police Chief Pamela A. Smith apologized to reporters about the early evening footage release, saying that her office received word from the Robinson family attorney last weekend to allow it. 

She then delved into a summary of Robinson’s last moments that aligned with the report MPD released shortly after the Sept. 1 police-involved shooting. 

“The officer has his weapon in the driver’s side of the window, “ Smith recounted. “Then the individual grabs the officer’s weapon and there’s an exchange of words. The officer discharges his fire then you see the individual’s firearm drop.” 

An examination of both officers’ body camera footage by this Informer reporter found some discrepancy in MPD’s account. While Robinson’s hand is raised, and the officer’s gun is inside the driver’s side window, it can’t quite be determined if Robinson grabbed the officer’s gun or was slowly raising his right hand.  

The two officers involved in the shooting — Vaso Mateus and Bryan Gilchrist — are currently on administrative leave while the Internal Affairs Bureau and U.S. Attorney’s Office of the District of Columbia are conducting their investigation.  

Family Members Set out to Control the Narrative

Robinson, 26, leaves behind legions of family members, including a twin brother. 

Last Friday, hundreds of community members converged on the 2500 block of Marion Barry Avenue in Southeast in honor of Robinson, a violence interrupter in his fifth month at Cure the Streets, an entity housed within the Office of the Attorney General. 

Questions ran the gamut, from how could officers not notice Robinson’s Cure the Streets jacket, to how do District residents safely navigate the city’s concealed carry laws. 

Despite earlier reports that Robinson’s family declined release of the body camera footage from Sept. 1, Robinson’s sister and Nee Nee Taylor of Harriet’s Wildest Dreams, which hosted the vigil in collaboration with Black Lives Matter DC, issued a call for the raw footage, not a redacted version. Each of them emphasized that they wanted no room for MPD to lie. 

Since Robinson’s death, and some rumination around his past incarceration,  family, friends and organizers have similarly remained vigilant about controlling the narrative about his life and community impact. In her brief remarks before the community, Robinson’s mother, who didn’t disclose her name, encouraged people to do their part. 

“Justice for Justin. We will keep going and we will fight and do it peacefully, like he would want it,” Robinson’s mother said. “Keep posting your pictures. Keep sending your pictures. Let’s keep his legacy alive.” 

Sam P.K. Collins has nearly 20 years of journalism experience, a significant portion of which he gained at The Washington Informer. On any given day, he can be found piecing together a story, conducting...

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