Investigation into Post Katrina murders Widens

Muhammad Speaks reported on the killing and burning of Henry Glover in Volume 7.  Here is the recent report from the original investigative reporter, A.C. Thompson as he spoke with Democracy Now.
There is an update on the investigations into a spate of police shootings in New Orleans that took place in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. In recent weeks, two former members of the New Orleans police have admitted to participating in a cover-up of the Danziger Bridge shootings of September 4th, 2005, when police SWAT units opened fire on a group of unarmed civilians, killing two and wounding four. Meanwhile, federal investigators have widened their probe into the New Orleans Police Department and are now looking into the circumstances surrounding four other incidents that include three deaths and one non-fatal shooting.

One of these incidents involves the death of a thirty-one-year-old African American man, Henry Glover, whose charred remains were found in the back of a burned car left on the banks of the Mississippi River. Federal investigators reportedly believe a police officer shot Glover, and other officers later burned a car with his body inside. Now, according to a report by the Times Picayune and ProPublica, what really happened in this case might have also been covered up by the New Orleans Police Department.

ProPublica reporter A.C. Thompson, broke the story and has been writing an ongoing series for PBS Frontline and the Times Picayune on the post-Katrina shootings in New Orleans.

A.C. THOMPSON: What we’re learning about the Henry Glover shooting, and his death, when he was burned up in the car on the banks of the Mississippi River, is that the police report that was generated documenting the officer-involved shooting involving Mr. Glover looks to have been altered, fabricated, changed from its original form from what was originally submitted to the police department. And so, the document that we have, the document that we believe the federal government has, does not seem to be the true, genuine, authentic, original police report. And so, that makes it look a lot more like what happened with the Danziger Bridge incident, where you had a police shooting—six people were shot, two people were killed—and then we now know, because of the federal indictments and the guilty pleas, that the investigative reports into those shootings were fabricated, forged, faked.

Henry Glover was a thirty-one-year-old man. He lived on the west bank of the Mississippi in New Orleans. He was a father of four. And on September 2nd, 2005, somebody, we believe probably a New Orleans police officer, shot him a single time in the chest. He was rescued by a Good Samaritan who drove him, ironically, to a place where police were camped out, thinking that the police could help him, give him medical aid, and save his life. But according to three different witnesses that I’ve interviewed, the police didn’t offer any assistance. What they instead did was they let Henry Glover bleed to death in the backseat of the car, and they physically assaulted the men that he was with, including the Good Samaritan. What we know happened after that is the car the Good Samaritan was driving and Henry Glover’s body were found behind a police station on the banks of the Mississippi River, and just—they were completely incinerated. There was almost nothing left. So, we have photos, video of Mr. Glover’s remains. And we’re talking about bone fragments, charred flesh, ashes—very little left.

The Good Samaritan was William Tanner, who is really the person who got this story out there and spoke to me first and spoke—and has been speaking and saying this was insane, this was terrible, and really trying to get the story out there.

Here’s the pattern, is that in the week after Hurricane Katrina, ten to eleven, possibly more, people were shot by the New Orleans Police Department. Now, the narrative that we had at the time was the citizens are running amok. More and more, it looks like perhaps the police were running amok.

And what we know about these shootings are, in two cases now, we have cases of fabricated documents or altered documents. In multiple cases, we have incidents where citizens were shot in the back. And that immediately raises suspicions that these were not good police shootings, that these were unnecessary uses of force. When somebody is shot in the back, you wonder if they’re really posing a threat to the officers.

B y AN N I E LIN S K E Y  | Baltimore Sun