FROM
REUTERS
11 Nov 2005 00:59:12 GMT

New Orleans prosecutor to review police shooting
By Kevin Krolicki

NEW ORLEANS, Nov 10 (Reuters) - An incident in which New Orleans police
killed two suspected snipers accused of firing at officers in the chaos
following Hurricane Katrina will be reviewed by prosecutors, the district
attorney said on Thursday.

New Orleans homicide detectives are compiling a report on the Sept. 4
shooting on Danziger Bridge, the single biggest police action in the weeks
that followed the Aug. 29 killer storm, a spokeswoman for the district
attorney's office said.

Police confronted a group of seven people, including a 17-year-old girl, on
the bridge that Sunday morning. Six were shot by police, two fatally.

The police said officers fired after being shot at by members of the group
and after rescue workers in boats reported having taken fire from the
bridge.

But police accounts of important details of the incident have changed over
time, including references to the size of the group and how many were
killed, whether they were all men and if they were looting.

The incident was widely reported at the time as evidence of the crime-ridden
chaos that descended on the city after Katrina struck.

New Orleans District Attorney Eddie Jordan said on Thursday he had requested
the findings of homicide investigators to review. "We expect to get a report
from the police department about the killings that took place," Jordan told
Reuters.

Prosecutors would "examine the report and determine whether it was a
justifiable homicide or whether further investigation is required," Jordan
said.

A police spokesman could not be immediately reached for comment.

The investigation comes when the conduct of the embattled New Orleans Police
Department is under scrutiny. About 15 percent of the force failed to report
for duty after Katrina, and 56 staff members have been fired for desertion.

An incident in which police officers were accused of taking Cadillacs from
an auto dealer after the storm will also be reviewed by prosecutors, Jordan
said.

'LOOTERS'

The Danziger Bridge incident came almost a week after Katrina struck and
when almost 80 percent of New Orleans was underwater and tens of thousands
of people were stranded inside the Superdome and convention center.

New Orleans police initially described those on the bridge as male "looters"
and said they had shot as many as eight and killed four.

In fact, police said last month the group included two women: Susan
Bartholomew, 39, and 17-year-old Leisha Bartholomew, both of whom were
wounded in the encounter but have not been charged.

An apparent relative, Leonard Bartholomew, 44, was also treated for gunshot
wounds and released from a hospital without being charged.

A month after the incident, police said one of the suspected gunmen who has
not been identified by authorities had been shot and killed on a bridge
walkway. A second ran to a nearby motel where police said he "reached into
his waist" and turned toward an officer who then shot and killed him.

A third, 19-year-old Jose Holmes, was wounded and faces possible attempted
murder charges for firing on police, authorities said.

Police said they had no motive to explain why the men opened fire on
officers.

The incident came after U.S. Army Corps of Engineers contractors working on
a levee breach reported having taken fire. It was not clear the two
incidents were related.

In a Sept. 18 story in the Los Angeles Times, one officer said he had been
summoned to back up police confronting "snipers" in a motel near the
Danziger Bridge.

The officer, Patrick Hartman, described the suspects as a "bunch of
crackheads" and said police brought their own arms to the encounter since
ammunition was in short supply.

"Everybody brought along their own toys -- AK-47s, SKSs (carbines), hunting
rifles," he told the newspaper.