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Robbie Tolan
Robbie Tolan was shot by police in Bellaire, TX on December 31, 2008. At the age of 23, he was shot by police while in his own driveway, and in front of his cousin & parents, after officers mistakenly thought Robbie had stolen his own car. Robbie is one of the few people who lived to tell his own story. He and his mother chronicle his story, including the U.S. Supreme Court Precedent they set in Tolan v. Cotton.
"They (police) were worried because they had made a mistake. Because by then when they ran the plates again, the car wasn't stolen. But they were still being rude, and they were just covering their butts. That's all they were doing. When they were rolling Robbie down the driveway, he heard a group of officers and you can see from the dash cam. You can see them huddling. And he said that he heard them say, "We got to get our story together."
Marian Tolan
(mother)
Incident Site
Robbie Tolan
(victim)
"I learned there were two other black men shot and killed by police in that same 24 hours. So one was Oscar Grant in Oakland, the movie Fruitvale Station. So that was one. And then there was a guy Adolph Grimes, who fled new Orleans during Katrina, and was a resident of Houston, but had gone back to new Orleans for the New Year. And he was shot and killed in New Orleans. Obviously it gained national attention, three black men being shot by cops on virtually the same night."
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