New Orleans police jailed in Katrina killings

By Staff
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Google Oneindia News

New Orleans, Jan 3: Seven New Orleans police officers charged in the shooting deaths of two people and wounding of four others in the chaotic days after Hurricane Katrina turned themselves in at the city jail amid cheers from their supporters.

Four of the officers were indicted on Thursday for murder and three others for attempted murder in the September 4, 2005 incident that came to symbolize the lawlessness in the streets after Katrina struck and left tens of thousands stranded in the flooded city.

One of the officers, Michael Hunter, charged with attempted murder, was released on bail late yesterday, but the others remained behind bars, said Michael Glasser, president of the Police Association of New Orleans union.

A bail hearing and possible arraignment were scheduled for Friday, he told Reuters.

The shootings took place after police responded to reports of sniper fire from the Danziger Bridge in eastern New Orleans.

They found two groups of pedestrians and said a gunfight ensued.

An internal investigation cleared the officers, but survivors and family members say the victims were unarmed and ambushed.

The accused officers were applauded and embraced by more than 200 fellow law enforcement officials when they arrived to turn themselves in. Also present were several counter-demonstrators who insisted that the police fired without provocation.

Glasser said the state grand jury that indicted the officers did not hear evidence that favors the accused officers' version of the event.

''This is a situation where officers were asked to stay and defend their city under very, very arduous conditions, with very limited supplies, in some cases without food and water.

They found themselves in circumstances they did not create, and they found themselves in a gunfight,'' he told Reuters.

''The idea that seven police officers, who would rather have been anywhere else on the face of the earth that day than where they were, would suddenly drive up on a bridge and indiscriminately shoot people for no reason, then conspire, is preposterous,'' he said.

In a statement released with Thursday's indictment, Orleans Parish District Attorney Eddie Jordan said the accused ignored rules governing the use of lethal force during the state of emergency that followed the storm.

''We cannot allow our police officers to shoot and kill our citizens without justification like rabid dogs,'' Jordan said.

Charged with murder were Kenneth Bowen, Robert Gisevius, Anthony Villavoso and Robert Faulcon.

Along with Hunter, Ignatius Hill and Robert Barrios were indicted for attempted murder.

REUTERS

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