After Katoine Richardson was wrongfully named as the alleged suspect in the shooting a Madison Police Department officer on State Street, he had his bond posted.
The court commissioner had set Richardson’s bail at $16,000, but at the request of Richardson’s public defender Stan Woodward, Judge Nia Trammell reduced it to $11,000 according to a recording of the preliminary hearing by WORT radio. The state had initially asked the court to set the bail at $50,000.
Free the 350 — a local activist organization dedicated to bailing out Black people in Dane County Jail — posted Richardson’s bail later that day, Freedom Action Now Community Organizer Ananda Deacon said.
“No Black person should be in jail right now,” Deacon said. “Katoine is one of the several Black youths that the system has over-policed, brutalized and made out to feel worthless.”
In a press release, Freedom Inc said MPD had heavily implied Richardson was the one who shot the cop on state street, which lead to many news outlets to falsely report that Richardson was a “cop killer.”
Deacon said her other concerns about the MPD’s arrest of Richardson include how, despite Richardson wearing a mask, MPD had managed to identify him as a wanted suspect from security footage.
“My intuition would tell me that he was profiled,” Deacon said.
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Local activists from Freedom Inc, Freedom Action Now and Black Umbrella held a press conference Wednesday to demand that Dane County release Richardson on a signature bond, meaning he wouldn’t have to pay the state money to post bail.
Woodward asked Trammell to set the bond at $11,000 in the hearing. Woodward said $11,000 would both recognize the seriousness of the charges leveled against Richardson, while also making it financially possible for Richardson’s family to bail him out.
District Attorney Ismael Ozanne asked Trammell to set the bond at the state’s initial request of $50,000 because he believed it was in line with the seriousness of Richardson’s offense.
Ozanne called MPD Officer Edward McKinley to testify in the hearing. McKinley, who is Black, said he noticed Richardson was holding a gun pointing in his direction while another MPD officer was pinning Richardson to the ground.
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McKinley said he considered drawing his weapon but then decided to wrestle the gun out of Richardson’s hand. While both Richardson and McKinley had their hands on the gun, the gun went off, McKinley said.
According to Woodward, Richardson had stated he had wanted to be shot by the police.
Deacon was with Richardson after he was bailed out.
“I imagine [Richardson] has been through a lot of emotional trauma,” Deacon said. “It’s not easy to be labeled in the public as a cop killer when you didn’t do that at all.”
