Ex-New Orleans police officers plead guilty in post-Katrina killings

Source: Reuters

Ex-New Orleans police officers plead guilty in post-Katrina killings

April 20, 2016

(Reuters) - Five ex-New Orleans police officers pleaded guilty on Wednesday to various charges in connection with the killings of two unarmed people in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, a federal prosecutor said.

The former officers were convicted in 2011 over an incident in which police fired on unarmed people walking over the city's Danziger Bridge in September 2005. A retrial was later ordered due to prosecutorial misconduct.

They were responding to a report of gunfire after the devastating hurricane flooded the city and triggered looting and other mayhem. In addition to the two people killed, four others were also seriously injured.

Under the plea deal, the four men involved in the shootings - Kenneth Bowen, Robert Faulcon, Robert Gisevius and Anthony Villavaso - pleaded guilty to depriving the victims of their civil rights, obstruction of justice and conspiracy to obstruct justice, according to Kenneth Polite, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Louisiana.

Read more: https://www.yahoo.com/news/ex-orleans-police-officers-plead-guilty-post-katrina-203015182.html?nhp=1