GUILTY LA - Shooting on Danziger Bridge, 2 dead, 4 hurt, New Orleans, 4 Sept 2005

One brother is a dentist. One has a 25 year career with FedEx. He is walking his disabled brother across the bridge to the dentist's office. This sounds like a family who was making good lives for themselves. It is such a shame that Ronald was murdered. Shooting someone in the back five times does constitute murder in my opinion.

I know that the officers were stressed during Katrina. However, I think that there was some serious wrongdoing in NO in the aftermath. Not all of it was by the civilians.



JMHO
 
I was under the impression that the officers were fired on first. I remember when this happened, hearing about it on the radio. I was at that point that I realized NO had competely lost it.
 
2sisters said:
I was under the impression that the officers were fired on first. I remember when this happened, hearing about it on the radio. I was at that point that I realized NO had competely lost it.
I remember when this incident happened too. I'm not condoning what these officers did BUT knowing all the other stuff going on around NO at the time I can certainly understand their actions.
But also,
This story doesn't really surprise me...you use hear about illegal/unlawful activity among NOPD quite often.
It's the lesser of two evils... IMO
 
czechmate7 said:
I remember when this incident happened too. I'm not condoning what these officers did BUT knowing all the other stuff going on around NO at the time I can certainly understand their actions.
But also,
This story doesn't really surprise me...you use hear about illegal/unlawful activity among NOPD quite often.
It's the lesser of two evils... IMO
I wasn't there and don't know what went on so I can't judge the officers. Alot of them were operating on fear. I think wither the men fired on them or were armed from what I recall. It was a nightmare down there I am sure. Those of us down here got a different perspective than others got b/c of local radio like WWL 870.
Of course there is also the fact that NOPD is grossly corrupt. I will never forget watching police officers looting, only in New Orleans.
 
One of the men they shot was mentally retarded, was unarmed and shot 7 times, 5 of those in the back. He and his brother were walking to their other brothers dental office when the teenagers behind them started shooting. They ran because well, gunfire was going on...the cops just shot into the bunch of people.

One of the officers involved had been charged with murder before.
 
BhamMama said:
One of the men they shot was mentally retarded, was unarmed and shot 7 times, 5 of those in the back. He and his brother were walking to their other brothers dental office when the teenagers behind them started shooting. They ran because well, gunfire was going on...the cops just shot into the bunch of people.

One of the officers involved had been charged with murder before.

Holy cow---they just start shooting into the bunch of people, without even knowing what they are doing and obviously, without even knowing or caring WHO they were shooting at? A mentally retarded man shot 5 times in the back---geez, that statement alone is very telling.

Whatever happened with the case of all those dogs being shot by a cop in the school in NO? Have they charged him yet?? That was truly disgusting, mainly because it wasn't done to save the animals from suffering. These dogs were shot in places on their body that didn't immediately kill them and they were left to bleed to death.
 
2sisters said:
Of course there is also the fact that NOPD is grossly corrupt. I will never forget watching police officers looting, only in New Orleans.
But it's not just in NO, there are corrupt police officers & departments all over the country. I believe the good and noble ones far outweigh the bad, but the bad do exist in large numbers.

My 16 year old son has just recently expressed his desire to become a police officer. Of course, being 16, his mind changes with the weather, but it scares the hell out of me that he won't change his mind. Yes, it's a noble profession, but so incredibly dangerous. I am a worrywart. I even worry that I worry too much. How sick is that.
 
julianne said:
Holy cow---they just start shooting into the bunch of people, without even knowing what they are doing and obviously, without even knowing or caring WHO they were shooting at? A mentally retarded man shot 5 times in the back---geez, that statement alone is very telling.

Whatever happened with the case of all those dogs being shot by a cop in the school in NO? Have they charged him yet?? That was truly disgusting, mainly because it wasn't done to save the animals from suffering. These dogs were shot in places on their body that didn't immediately kill them and they were left to bleed to death.
The dog incident is in St. Bernard parish. I will try to find a link for you.
 
I grew up in N.O. and can certainly sympathize with what the police went through in the aftermath of Katrina, the ones that stayed and tried to keep some sort of order. BUT, I am very bothered by the facts that were stated above: an unarmed mentally handicapped victim was shot multiple times in the back, by an officer who had previously been charged with murder. That set of circumstances does not easily lend itself to an "innocent" explanation.
 
BhamMama said:
One of the men they shot was mentally retarded, was unarmed and shot 7 times, 5 of those in the back. He and his brother were walking to their other brothers dental office when the teenagers behind them started shooting. They ran because well, gunfire was going on...the cops just shot into the bunch of people.

One of the officers involved had been charged with murder before.
I have a correction to my post to add. The brothers had left their other brothers business and were headed across the bridge to hopefully catch a bus out. Not going to their brothers' place of business as I had stated. Though that part is a bit conflicted, I will go with the local story vs the national version on this one.

Ronald Madison, 40, was the man shot and killed. His brother Lance Madison, 49, was arrested following this and charged with 8 counts of attempted murder. He had no prior record and was a 25 year employee of Federal Express. He has since been released. He has also been cleared by the same grand jury that indicted the officers.

Last year in a CNN interview with Police Chief Warren Riley:

Riley conceded the two Madison brothers may not have been connected with the other people on the bridge that day."I don't know if those young men were innocent or not. I really don't know if they were with that group or not," Riley said. "I really don't know."

There is a secondary story to add to this as well. A man pretending to be a police officer was out there on that bridge. I'll see if I can find a link.

All of my info can be found on CNN, nola.com, The Herald Tribune or the local paper, The Times Picayune.

http://www.heraldtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061230/APN/612303120
 
I am certain there is a thread on this somewhere, please merge mods if you find it.

The Federal Investigation regarding the shootings in NOLA on the Danzinger bridge as well as other locations around the city are starting to generate results. For a long time, victims have been claiming a cover-up by local LE regarding the events in the days post Katrina which triggered the participation of federal investigators.

The incident of the Danzinger bridge has survivors claiming that they were ambushed by armed police officers who fired into a crowd attempting to cross the bridge to obtain food and water at a grocery store. Two people were killed, one of whom was disabled, and four people were wounded. The officers claim that they simply returned fire when someone shot at them. The federal probe does not support that point of view.

Most of the documents relating to the investigation and charges have been sealed. A plea deal will go a long way towards validating the position of the victims of multiple incidents involving excessive force throughout the city in the days following the hurricane and the flooding.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100224/ap_on_re_us/us_katrina_bridge_shooting
 
Lohman was aware that the victims in the Danzinger shooting were unarmed. He participated in the set up and planting of a "clean" weapon and orchestrated the reports of the 7 officers involved in the incident. A federal judge dismissed the charges against the seven.

Lohman has agreed to plead guilty AND assist federal investigators in accumulating evidence against the rest involved.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100224...3luX2hlYWRsaW5lX2xpc3QEc2xrA2V4LW9mZmljZXJjaA--
 
Lohman was aware that the victims in the Danzinger shooting were unarmed. He participated in the set up and planting of a "clean" weapon and orchestrated the reports of the 7 officers involved in the incident. A federal judge found the officers not guilty in 2008 based upon this evidence/

Lohman has agreed to plead guilty AND assist federal investigators in accumulating evidence against the rest involved.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100224...3luX2hlYWRsaW5lX2xpc3QEc2xrA2V4LW9mZmljZXJjaA--


snipped from the link:

"Lohman supervised the initial probe of the officers' actions. That investigation drew U.S. Justice Department attention after a state judge dismissed the charges against the seven officers in 2008."

If the judge dismissed the charges then they were not necessarily found "not guilty". If they had been tried and found "not guilty" then they could not be charged and tried again for the same offense because of double jeopardy rules. JMO
 
Thanks for posting this Believe09. I was planning on looking this up as I am reading the book The Devil's Punchbowl by Greg Isles (good read BTW) and reference is made to this, and I was wondering whatever happened. Seriously JUST LAST NIGHT, then I get on WS and find this. So thanks. It is good to see justice being done.
 
I hate to hear this. Katrina was a very trying time in our state.

I don't know exactly what went on at that bridge but I will say this, LE and rescue workers were shot at several times while trying to help in NOLA in the days after Katrina. It was widely known and covered by the media. One report even captured some people shooting at a rescue helicopter. A lot of people would not go there to help because of this reason.

I'm in no way saying these guys on the bridge did no wrong, it looks like they did.

Just trying to put it in perspective. A lot of great people that were trying to help we shot at.
 
Thanks Kimberly-I know that what you are saying is true. I think that Katrina/NOLA has to be separated out into something different from your typical complaints of police brutality or whatever.

Everyone was desperate, and the first responders were trying to keep order in the middle of insanity.

that being said, I think that the Danzinger bridge is akin to Kent State...JMO. I am glad to hear of the plea-it was the right thing to do.
 
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100311/ap_on_re_us/us_katrina_bridge_shooting

This is interesting to me-you have to believe that pleading guilty is the lesser of two evils in this case....

snip
The filing says police fabricated two nonexistent witnesses, kicked spent shell casings off the bridge weeks after the shooting and held a secret meeting in a gutted-out police building to make sure officers who shot at unarmed civilians got their false stories straight before taping interviews.
snip
 

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