warren robinson 16 years old, Auburn Gresham

Warren Robinson lived with his grandmother in the Auburn Gresham neighborhood on the south side of Chicago. He would take her to church on Sundays. Warren was a graduate of Mahalia Jackson Elementary and attended Julian High School and Banner West Academy. The only people he followed on Twitter were Lil Wayne & Barack Obama. A rapper and singer, Warren was part of the young, emerging hip-hop crew BOB/FOE, Family Over Everything. "Warren took it to heart more than everybody," said DaQuan Davis, FOE member and a friend since the fifth grade. "We were more like brothers. We were all he had. He kept us together."

On July 5th, 2014, Warren was near his grandmother's home when police were called to the neighborhood after reports of gunshots. There are conflicting reports as to what happened next. What is clear: police identified Warren as matching the caller's description, and chased him through an alley. Neighbor Keiyana Hawkins told the Chicago Tribune she went outside and saw a young man running and surrendering with his raised hands when police officers opened fire. The police shot Warren twenty times, according to his mother, Georgina Utendahl. "The police killed him," she told news media. "Why they killed him, I don't know. We want answers."

Tatechia Martin, DaQuan Davis's mother, would let Warren stay in her house for days at a time. "Warren wanted love, " said Ms. Martin, who moved her family to Texas soon after Robinson's murder, to protect her sons from police and violence in Chicago.

“I believe that when the police see a young Black man, they are trained to shoot to kill. They think we are a danger to society,” said DaQuan Davis.

Warren Robinson was sixteen years old when he was murdered by police, three days shy of his seventeenth birthday.

-Kevin Coval