In April 2017, Wilkinsburg police officers shot Todd Robinson in a McDonald’s parking lot on Penn Ave.
After an uneventful encounter with Robinson earlier that morning, Officer Chris Duncan and Sergeant Matthew Morrison sought him out to take him into custody for a technical violation of his parole. They ended up firing their guns into Robinson’s car, seriously wounding him. Robinson attempted to drive away after he was shot, crashed a few blocks to the west, and collapsed in the bushes after trying to flee on foot. The police charged him with a litany of offenses stemming from that incident, arguing that they had been forced to shoot him after he assaulted them by trying to run them over.
Last month, after nearly seven years of pre-trial detention in the Allegheny County Jail, Robinson finally got his day in court — after a week-long trial riddled with allegations of prosecutorial misconduct, on Feb. 23 the jury returned a mix of not guilty and guilty verdicts that acquitted Robinson of the most serious charges against him, including the aggravated assault charges that the prosecution had used to justify the police shooting of Robinson.
Although Robinson feels vindicated by the verdict, he says the entire process involved many violations of his civil rights.
“It starts with me not being able to pick my own jury because I was dressed in prison attire, which is a huge violation of my constitutional rights,” Robinson tells Pittsburgh City Paper. “Perjury was committed,” he continues, referring to discrepancies in the police officers’ accounts of where they were standing in relation to Robinson’s car, which were highlighted at trial.
In the initial report written hours after the shooting, both officers indicate that they were standing on the left side of Robinson’s car. In subsequent iterations of the story, including interviews with county investigators and testimony at Robinson’s preliminary hearing, their recollection of their positions shifted such that, at trial, both men repeatedly testified to standing directly behind Robinson’s car. However, as Robinson testified on the stand during the trial’s second day, his gunshot wound reflects that a bullet entered his left underarm and traveled to the left side of his chest, where it became lodged, which could not have occurred if the officers had shot him from behind as they claimed.
On several occasions pre-trial, Judge Randall Todd refused to allow Robinson to exercise his right to represent himself, and last month’s trial included charges that were supposed to have been dealt with separately.
After county investigators towed the car Robinson was driving to the crime lab and processed it, they found a gun in a brown paper bag under the passenger-side seat. A previous felony conviction meant Robinson was not legally permitted to possess a gun. In July 2019, the prosecution and defense agreed to sever the gun charges from the rest of the case, creating two different cases, but this was never done.
Furthermore, on the last day of the trial, Robinson says he and his legal team discovered that the prosecution was playing a version of the surveillance footage that had edited out key events, including Duncan running after Robinson’s car and shooting at it a third time.
“There’s video evidence that's in evidence that captures a totally different thing that wasn't shown to the jury,” he says.
A spokesperson from district attorney Steven Zappala’s office declined to comment on Robinson’s allegations of misconduct, instead writing in an email to City Paper, “Following several continuances by Robinson, based on all the evidence presented, on February 23, 2024, a jury found the defendant Guilty of 5 charges including 3 felonies. The case is pending sentencing.” The three felonies of which Robinson was convicted were fleeing from the police and two charges related to the gun found under the seat. The jury also found him guilty of reckless endangerment of the officer who shot him and reckless driving.
CP first reported on Robinson’s case in May 2023. At that time, he said he was unable to get access to exonerating evidence. Robinson now says he was granted access to that evidence, including video surveillance footage and the initial reports filed by Wilkinsburg police, after CP’s story. A time stamp on Robinson’s paper copy of the incident report reflects that it was printed out in June 2023, a month after publication.
That evidence, Robinson says, “was necessary for the trial. It helped out a lot.” Because the prosecution had used the alleged assault to justify the police shooting Robinson, the jury finding that he did not assault the officers “raises a huge question mark of what took place and at this point what happened certainly has to be investigated,” Robinson says.
He is now pushing for an independent investigation by the Attorney General’s office and urges members of the public concerned about his case to contact the AG and request an investigation. Robinson also wants to see the establishment of a statewide integrity unit to provide oversight over Pennsylvania district attorneys.
“This ain’t just about me,” he tells CP, saying that the civil rights abuses in his case occur “continuously across the nation,” to many other individuals.
Robinson’s attorneys and the Wilkinsburg police did not respond to requests for comment.
