New Orleans officers charged with murder

A grand jury on Thursday indicted seven New Orleans police officers on murder and attempted murder charges for their role in a chaotic post-Katrina shooting spree that left two dead, including a mentally disabled man.

The criminal charges against the officers, who had been cleared of any wrongdoing by the New Orleans Police Department, come after widespread public criticism of what has become known as the Danziger Bridge incident. The police shootings have, for many in the city, come to symbolize the lawlessness and disorder that marked the days after the hurricane.

“We cannot allow our police officers to shoot and kill our citizens without justification like rabid dogs,” Orleans Parish District Attorney Eddie J. Jordan Jr. said in a statement Thursday. “The rules governing the use of lethal force are not suspended during a state of emergency. Everyone, including police officers, must abide by the law of the land.”

Six days after Katrina hit New Orleans, police on Sept. 4, 2005, commandeered a truck and responded to what they initially reported as two officers downed during an armed attack on the Danziger Bridge that links the Gentilly and New Orleans East neighborhoods.

In the fusillade that followed, Ronald Madison, a 40-year-old mentally disabled man who had refused to leave his dogs during the storm, and James Brissette, 19, were killed. Four others were seriously wounded.

From the outset, the shootings’ survivors have said that they were simply crossing the bridge and ran in panic only after a pack of men they thought were criminals opened fire for no apparent reason.

Follow-up media reports found that no officers had been wounded before the gunfire that killed Madison and Brissette, casting doubt on the officers’ version of events, which was backed by the department.

An autopsy found that Madison was shot in the back several times, contradicting a sergeant’s claims that the man, who had no prior criminal record, had come toward the officers and reached into his waistband before being shot.

In response to public criticism, Jordan convened a special grand jury to examine evidence in the case. On Thursday, it indicted two sergeants, Kenneth Bowen and Robert Gisevius, and two officers, Anthony Villavaso and Robert Faulcon, on first-degree murder charges in Brissette’s death. Faulcon also was charged with first-degree murder for the death of Madison. The charges carry a potential death sentence.

The four officers also were charged with varying counts of attempted murder for shooting additional victims, as were officers Robert Barrios, Michael Hunter and Ignatius Hills.

New Orleans Police Department spokeswoman Bambi Hall said Thursday that police would not comment on the shootings.

“As in the past few months, the district attorney is the only office to provide commentary on the Danziger incident,” Hall said via e-mail.