| 2005 Danziger Bridge shootings | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Location | New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S. |
| Coordinates | 30°0′30″N 90°1′38″W / 30.00833°N 90.02722°W |
| Date | September 4, 2005 (Central Daylight Time) |
Attack type | Police brutality |
| Weapons | Assault rifle, shotgun |
| Deaths | 2 |
| Injured | 4 |
| Perpetrators | New Orleans Police Department officers Kenneth Bowen; Robert Faulcon Jr.; Robert Gisevius Jr.; and Anthony Villavaso II.[1] |
On the morning of September 4, 2005, six days after Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans, members of the New Orleans Police Department (NOPD), ostensibly responding to a call from an officer under fire, shot and killed two civilians at the Danziger Bridge: 17-year-old James Brissette and 40-year-old Ronald Madison. Four other civilians were wounded. All of the victims were African-American. None were armed or had committed any crime. Madison, a mentally disabled man, was shot in the back. The shootings caused public anger and further eroded the community's trust in the NOPD and the federal response to Hurricane Katrina overall.[2]
The NOPD attempted to cover up the killings, falsely reporting that seven police officers responded to a police dispatch reporting an officer down, and that at least four suspects were firing weapons at the officers upon their arrival.[3] Rev. Raymond Brown, the local head of the National Action Network (NAN), described the shootings as "...a racial tragedy."[4]
On August 5, 2011, a federal jury in New Orleans convicted five NOPD officers of myriad charges related to the cover-up and deprivation of civil rights.[5] An attorney for the U.S. Justice Department described the case as "the most significant police misconduct prosecution [in the U.S.] since the Rodney King beating case".[6] However, the convictions were vacated on September 17, 2013, by U.S. District Judge Kurt Engelhardt due to prosecutorial misconduct, and a new trial was ordered.[7] The Justice Department appealed the decision to vacate the convictions,[8] but a federal appeals court agreed that a new trial was warranted.[9]
On April 20, 2016, the five former officers pleaded guilty to various charges related to the shooting, and in return received reduced sentences ranging from three to twelve years in prison. Three of the officers are white and two are African-American.[10]
- ^ "Five New Orleans Police Officers Sentenced on Civil Rights and Obstruction of Justice Violations in the Danziger Bridge Shooting Case" (Press release). FBI. April 4, 2012. Retrieved April 28, 2012.
- ^ Grimm, Andy (July 18, 2019) [September 5, 2015]. "A decade after Danziger Bridge shooting, killings still cast a shadow". The Times-Picayune. New Orleans, Louisiana. Retrieved January 31, 2022.
- ^ "Bill of information for conspiring to obstruct justice" (PDF). February 3, 2010. Archived from the original (PDF) on September 8, 2015. Retrieved April 22, 2010.
- ^ Harris, Paul (March 3, 2007). "Relatives demand justice as police go on trial over Katrina killings". The Guardian. Retrieved November 30, 2022.
- ^ "5 NOPD officers guilty in post-Katrina shootings, deaths, cover-up on Danziger Bridge". The Times-Picayune. nola.com. August 8, 2011. Retrieved April 4, 2012.
- ^ "5 Ex-Officers Sentenced in Post-Katrina Shootings". The New York Times. April 4, 2012. Retrieved April 5, 2012.
- ^ "Judge orders new trial for 5 convicted in Danziger Bridge killings". WDSU TV. September 17, 2013. Archived from the original on January 8, 2014. Retrieved September 17, 2013.
- ^ Grimm, Andy (July 18, 2019) [originally published April 29, 2015]. "Appealing new trial in Danziger Bridge shootings, government has rough outing". The Times-Picayune. New Orleans, Louisiana. Retrieved November 30, 2022.
- ^ Grimm, Andy (August 19, 2015). "5 NOPD officers will get new trial in Danziger Bridge case, appeals court rules". The Times-Picayune. New Orleans, Louisiana. Retrieved November 30, 2022.
- ^ Ken Daley; Emily Lane (April 20, 2016). "Danziger Bridge officers sentenced: 7 to 12 years for shooters, cop in cover-up gets 3". The Times-Picayune.