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Funeral Held for US Black Teen Shot by Police Officer


Mourners embrace during the funeral for Tony Robinson Jr. at Madison East High School in Madison, Wisconsin, March 14, 2015.
Mourners embrace during the funeral for Tony Robinson Jr. at Madison East High School in Madison, Wisconsin, March 14, 2015.

Hundreds of people attended the funeral Saturday of a 19-year-old black man shot by a white police officer in the northern U.S. city of Madison, Wisconsin.

The mourners packed a high school field house where family members requested no demonstrations.

Tony Robinson Jr. was unarmed during a confrontation with Police Officer Matt Kenny on March 6.

Kenny was responding to emergency telephone calls that reported an assault and sightings of a man jumping in and out of traffic. Madison police said Kenny forced his way into Robinson's apartment after hearing a disturbance inside. Robinson attacked Kenny, who then shot him in self-defense, police said.

Robinson's shooting death, the latest of several such incidents across the country, sparked renewed demonstrations against what many see as racial bias in the law enforcement ranks.

Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Justice issued a report confirming patterns of racial profiling, bigotry and profit-driven law enforcement and court practices in the St. Louis, Missouri, suburb of Ferguson, where a white police officer shot and killed an unarmed black teenager last year.

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