No weapons were recovered at the scene, and both police and civilian witnesses testified that the victims had been unarmed. He was held in custody for three weeks before being released without indictment. Lance was then taken into custody and charged with eight counts of attempting to kill police officers. Bowen was later convicted of stomping Madison on the back before he died, though this conviction was overturned for lack of physical evidence. The autopsy found that Ronald sustained seven gunshot wounds, five of them in his back. Faulcon fired his shotgun from the back of the car at Ronald, a developmentally disabled man who later died from his injuries. Two brothers who fled the scene, Ronald and Lance Madison, were pursued down the bridge by officers Gisevius and Faulcon in an unmarked Louisiana State Police vehicle. Jose Holmes Jr., a friend of Brissette's, was shot in the abdomen, the hand and the jaw. The Bartholomews' teenage daughter Lesha was shot four times. Her husband, Leonard, was shot in the back, head and foot. Susan Bartholomew's arm was partially shot off and later had to be amputated. Īs a result of this initial shooting, 17-year-old James Brissette - a family friend - was killed. The officers opened fire without warning on the Bartholomew family and friend, who had been walking to a grocery store and were then sheltering behind a concrete barrier. A witness, Kasimir Gaston, described the officers as lining up "like at a firing range". The officers arrived in a Budget rental truck none of them were in uniform and they were armed with rifles including AK-47s, at least one of which was unauthorized, and an M4 carbine assault rifle. Robert Gisevius, Officer Anthony Villavaso and Officer Robert Faulcon. On September 4, 2005, almost a week after Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans, several New Orleans Police Department (NOPD) officers arrived at the Danziger Bridge. Three of the officers are white and two are African-American. 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. The Justice Department appealed the decision to vacate the convictions, but a federal appeals court agreed that a new trial was warranted. District Judge Kurt Engelhardt due to prosecutorial misconduct, and a new trial was ordered. However, the convictions were vacated on September 17, 2013, by U.S. Justice Department described the case as "the most significant police misconduct prosecution since the Rodney King beating case". 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. Raymond Brown, the local head of the National Action Network (NAN), described the shootings as ".a racial tragedy." 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. The shootings caused public anger and further eroded the community's trust had in the NOPD and the federal response to Hurricane Katrina overall. Madison, a mentally disabled man, was shot in the back. None were armed or had committed any crime. 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. New Orleans Police Department officers Kenneth Bowen Robert Faulcon Jr.
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