{"id":366572,"date":"2010-02-26T09:04:28","date_gmt":"2010-02-26T14:04:28","guid":{"rendered":"tag:www.southernstudies.org,2010:\/\/5.12159"},"modified":"2010-03-02T10:51:27","modified_gmt":"2010-03-02T15:51:27","slug":"former-new-orleans-police-detective-pleads-guilty-in-katrina-shooting-cover-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/366572","title":{"rendered":"Former New Orleans police detective pleads guilty in Katrina shooting cover-up"},"content":{"rendered":"

By A.C. Thompson, ProPublica<\/a><\/i><\/p>\n

Former New Orleans Police Department Lt. Michael Lohman pleaded
\nguilty to a single count of conspiring to obstruct justice, in
\nconnection with one of a string of violent encounters between police
\nand civilians in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Police
\nshot at least 10 people during the week after the storm made landfall.
\n(We have been investigating the shootings<\/a>, along with our partners the New Orleans Times-Picayune<\/em><\/a> and PBS “Frontline.”<\/a>) <\/p>\n

\nLohman’s guilty plea stems from the so-called Danziger Bridge incident<\/a>
\nof Sept. 4, 2005. Responding to an emergency call that day, New Orleans
\npolice officers shot six citizens — killing two — on and around the span.\n<\/p>\n

\nThe Times-Picayune<\/em> has been covering<\/a> the Danziger Bridge shootings from the start and it has the latest<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n

Lohman helped orchestrate the police’s investigation of the
\nshooting, a probe portrayed in the bill of information as an attempted
\ncover-up. The former lieutenant was involved in planting a handgun at
\nthe scene, drafted phony police reports, and lied to federal agents,
\naccording the court document<\/a>. (The New York Times<\/em> has good details<\/a> on the alleged cover-up. And we at ProPublica have posted the bill of information in our easy-to-read document viewer<\/a>.)\n<\/p>\n

\nLohman’s plea is the clearest indicator yet that the federal
\ngovernment — which for more than a year now has been investigating the
\nNew Orleans Police Department’s actions in the aftermath of Hurricane
\nKatrina — is mounting a two-pronged probe: federal prosecutors and the
\nFBI are scrutinizing incidents in which police shot civilians in the
\nchaotic days after the storm, as well as the alleged efforts of other
\nofficers to cover-up those shootings.  <\/p>\n

\nDefense attorneys familiar with the widening federal probe say the Justice Department is looking at the death of Henry Glover<\/a> as a possible cover-up, as well. Glover was shot on Sept. 2, 2005 — possibly by NOPD officer David Warren<\/a> — and
\ndied, according to three witnesses, at a makeshift police compound in
\nthe Algiers section of New Orleans. His charred remains were later
\ndiscovered in an incinerated car dumped on a Mississippi River levee.\n<\/p>\n

\nFederal agents began examining Glover’s death after ProPublica, in conjunction with The Nation<\/em> magazine, reported on the case<\/a> in late 2008.\n<\/p>\n

\nIn recent weeks, the Justice Department has begun looking at three other post-Katrina incidents — the shootings of Danny Brumfield<\/a>, Matthew McDonald<\/a> and Keenon McCann<\/a>,
\nall of whom were shot by NOPD officers in the week after the hurricane
\nmade landfall. Brumfield and McDonald died; McCann was injured but
\nsurvived to file a lawsuit against the police department. He was shot
\nto death by an unknown assailant in 2008 while the suit was pending. <\/p>\n

\nThe NOPD, like most police departments, conducts an investigation every
\ntime an officer opens fire on a citizen — the goal is to make sure the
\nshooting was proper and justified. As a general rule, officers are
\nallowed to use deadly force only when confronted by a person posing a
\nphysical threat, either to the officer or another civilian. <\/p>\n

\nHowever, a joint effort by reporters with ProPublica, the New Orleans Times-Picayune<\/em>
\nand PBS “Frontline” found that NOPD investigators did little to
\ndetermine whether officers acted appropriately when they shot
\nBrumfield, McDonald and McCann. NOPD detectives collected little
\nphysical evidence, spoke to few civilian witnesses, and conducted brief
\ninterviews — ranging from seven to 12 minutes — with the officers involved
\nin the shootings.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By A.C. Thompson, ProPublica Former New Orleans Police Department Lt. Michael Lohman pleaded guilty to a single count of conspiring to obstruct justice, in connection with one of a string of violent encounters between police and civilians in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Police shot at least 10 people during the week after […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5733,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-366572","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366572","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5733"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=366572"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366572\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=366572"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=366572"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=366572"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}