A 22-year-old man who died in an encounter with police following a car and foot chase was laid to rest Saturday while questions still loom over his death.
Keeven Robinson’s funeral services were attended by family and friends, but also by community members and the NAACP who are watching closely an investigation of the officers who were present at the time the coroner said Robinson died of asphyxiation. His death was ruled a homicide, but an investigation is set to determine whether the officers’ actions were justified.
Gaylor Spiller, the president of the Jefferson Parish NAACP said the problem of young black men dying at the hands of police is more than just unsettling. She urged officers not to defend officers who, she says, are making bad choices.
“Do not stand with your colleague who has a bad reputation of killing black boys, black men, black children,” she said. “This is a genocide going on people. Wake up! It’s a genocide going on against our people.”