Saturday, August 6, 2011

Officers Guilty in Post-Katrina Shootings

It took almost 6 years for the Feds to unravel what took only days and weeks to create. But it found the truth in the end.  From today's NYT:

In a grisly account, prosecutors said four of the defendants — Sgt. Kenneth Bowen, Sgt. Robert Gisevius, Officer Anthony Villavaso and former Officer Robert Faulcon — had raced to the bridge in a Budget rental truck that morning, responding to a distress call from another officer.
There they poured out of the truck and opened fire, without pausing or giving a warning, on members of the Bartholomew family, who were walking to a grocery in the largely abandoned city. James Brisette, 17, a friend of the family, was killed, and four others were gravely wounded by the police, who kept firing as the Bartholomews raced for safety.
Several of the officers then chased Ronald and Lance Madison, two brothers, to the other side of the bridge, where Mr. Faulcon shot Ronald, a 40-year-old mentally disabled man, in the back. Sergeant Bowen was convicted of stomping him on the back as he lay dying.
No guns were recovered at the scene, and witnesses — both officers and citizens — testified that the victims were unarmed.
The cover-up began immediately, prosecutors said, and the jury found all of the officers, as well as retired Sgt. Arthur Kaufman, guilty on charges of obstructing justice, fabricating witnesses, lying to federal investigators or planting a firearm at the scene to bolster a made-up story. 
Sometimes blind mother justice gets off her pile of manure, and this would be one of those times.

Read the rest HERE.

1 comment:

  1. Every once in a while justice prevails. This was long overdue.

    ReplyDelete

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