Benjamin Crump, the high-profile civil rights attorney who represented Trayvon Martin’s family against George Zimmerman last year, announced Sunday that he has been hired by a former minor league baseball player who was shot by a Bellaire police sergeant in 2008.
“It is unfair what has happened to Robbie Tolan,” Crump said, noting Tolan had been poised to follow in the footsteps of his father, former major league baseball player Bobby Tolan. “That was taken away from him through no fault of his own. He was driving while black. He was profiled.”
Crump said the case merits national attention and will join the Tolan family at a press conference on Monday.
It will be the family’s first public statement since the racially charged lawsuit was revived last week by the U.S. Supreme Court. The unanimous ruling said a 2012 decision by a federal appeals court to dismiss the suit had failed to consider the version of events told by 23-year-old Tolan.
Tolan, who is black, was shot by Sgt. Jeffrey Cotton in the driveway of the Bellaire home where he lived with his parents. At a Houston rally for Martin last year, Tolan related to the Florida teen’s case, arguing that he too had been profiled and talking about how hopeless he felt moments after being shot, Crump said.
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SOURCE: Jayme Fraser
Houston Chronicle
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