A little over a week ago, a 27-year-old Bronx man was fatally struck by a police car after being chased for allegedly stealing bricks. Except it turned out that Tamon Robinson wasn't stealing bricks—his friends and family say he had permission to take paving stones on the grounds of the Bayview Houses in Canarsie where he lived. And now, IAB has opened up an investigation into his death. "I don’t know how we go from someone being chased by the police to someone being run over and killed,” said the attorney of the deceased man's family.
Robinson was loading the stones into his truck around 5:30 a.m. on April 12 when police responded to a call that he was stealing them—Robinson began running to his nearby apartment when the car struck him. Robinson suffered shoulder and head injuries, and was in a coma until this past Wednesday, when he died. The autopsy ruled the death an accident, but the family has hired lawyer Sanford A. Rubenstein: “The question becomes how did that accident occur?” Rubenstein said to the Times. “That’s what we’re looking for witnesses to come forward to shed light on."
Robinson's mother Laverne Dobbinson said he ran a side business collecting stones, bricks and other building materials from construction sites and selling them to scrap dealers for small sums—and he had permission from his building management to take those stones that morning. Robinson worked a full-time job for the past six months as a cashier at Connecticut Muffin in Fort Greene, and his shift started at 6 a.m., which explains why he was out there so early.
Robinson had no prior criminal record: “He was a sweet boy and never gave anyone any trouble, not fighting or nothing,” his mother said. “People ought to know cops can’t do this.”
