Scott Walker hints he won’t cut Israel trip short

MADISON, Wisconsin — Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, who is expected to run for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, intimated that he would not cut short his trip to Israel when a Wisconsin prosecutor said he would announce on Tuesday whether charges would be filed against a white police officer who fatally shot an unarmed 19-year-old biracial man in Madison.

Asked whether Walker planned to cut his Israel trip short to be in Wisconsin when the decision was announced, Jocelyn Webster, a spokeswoman for Walker’s office, said in an email Sunday: “There have been peaceful demonstrations in the past and we expect that to be the case in the future. As always, Governor Walker is in regular contact with executive staff, regardless of his location.”

Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne had promised to give the public advance notice of the announcement in the case of Madison Officer Matt Kenny, who shot 19-year-old Tony Robinson in an apartment on March 6. Ozanne issued a brief statement on Sunday saying he would make his findings public on Tuesday.

Police have said Kenny was responding to reports that Robinson had assaulted two people and was running in traffic. Investigators said Robinson attacked Kenny but other details haven’t been released.

Racial tension between police and minorities has been running high in several US cities, most recently in Baltimore, where riots erupted after the funeral for Freddie Gray, a black man who suffered a fatal spinal injury while in police custody. Other high-profile cases of officers killing unarmed black residents include the deaths of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri; Eric Garner in New York City; and Walter Scott in North Charleston, South Carolina.

Six officers involved in Gray’s death have been charged, as has the officer who killed Scott. Grand juries declined to charge the officers involved in Brown’s and Garner’s deaths.

The Wisconsin Department of Justice investigated Robinson’s death under a state law that requires an outside agency to lead probes into officer-involved shootings. Ozanne said he received the last investigative reports from the agency on April 13 and has been mulling a decision since then.

The shooting has sparked multiple street protests led by the Young, Gifted and Black Coalition. The protests have been peaceful, although demonstrators have demanded Kenny be fired and charged with homicide. They also have said they don’t trust Ozanne, saying he’s part of a corrupt criminal justice system that targets blacks.

Police arrested at least four protesters in April after they blocked one of Madison’s main thoroughfares for eight hours.

Governor Walker chose to visit Israel without press coverage, according to a recent report. The trip to Israel is seen as key for Walker to burnish his foreign policy credentials ahead of an expected bid to run for the Republican nomination for the White House.

Visits to Israel are common in the run-up to elections. President Barack Obama made the trip before his successful run in 2007, and Mitt Romney visited Israel ahead of the US presidential election in July 2012, meeting with Israeli and Palestinian leaders.