Town of Madison man arrested for armed robbery on Fitchburg’s far northeast side, police say

A 19 year old Town of Madison man has been arrested for allegedly stealing a gun and money during an armed robbery late last week.

Ka’toine Richardson was arrested by City of Fitchburg police on Wednesday, March 23, for being the suspect in an alleged armed robbery that took place on Friday, March 18, in the 2800 block of Oregon Road on the city’s far northeast side, according to a news release from the police department. When officers responded to the armed robbery March 18, the victim told police an individual he knew had taken a gun and money from him.

Police referred preliminary felony charges of armed robbery, possession of a firearm by an adjudicated delinquent, endangering safety by use of a dangerous weapon, theft of a firearm while armed and ten total counts of bail jumping in relation to bail conditions set for unrelated criminal court proceedings.

The Star is choosing to name Richardson because at least one felony charge has been referred for him.

Police identified Richardson after talking with the victim and searched his property after developing probable cause for his arrest, the release stated. During the property search, police located the alleged stolen gun, the release states.

Richardson was taken to the Dane County Jail following the arrest.

Richardson is the defendant in a high-profile case from last October, where he was wrongly assumed to have shot a City of Madison officer during his arrest on State Street, and the mistake was only rectified after the state Department of Justice’s investigation found the injury had been caused by friendly fire from a fellow police officer. The attempted arrest came after police struggled to take Richardson’s gun from him.

Richardson later told an investigator that he had run from police the night of the arrest because he didn’t want to get caught carrying a gun while violating a bail-mandated curfew from unrelated criminal charges.

His attorney, state assistant public defender Stanley Woodard said in court last October that Madison police did not clarify that the gunshot that was fired and resulted in a non-life-threatening injury to one of its officers came from another police officer’s gun. 

Woodard added during the court proceeding that local press had hurt Richardson’s reputation by claiming in news stories that Richardson had fired the shot that injured the officer.