The New Orleans Cops Who Opened Fire On An Unarmed Family On Danziger Bridge
Mario Tama/Getty ImagesFour police officers from the New Orleans Police Department drove a rental truck and dressed in civilian clothes when they shot unarmed civilians with assault rifles on Danziger Bridge, seen here in 2010.
On Sept. 4, 2005, one week after Hurricane Katrina ravaged New Orleans, four New Orleans Police Department officers drove a Budget rental truck to the Danziger Bridge, which connects two predominantly Black neighborhoods on the city’s east side.
Kenneth Brown, Robert Gisevius, Anthony Villavaso, and Robert Faulcon arrived in plain clothes and brandishing assault rifles.
Three of the men held AK-47s — one of which was unregistered — and the fourth held an M4 carbine. Without warning, they fired on a group of unarmed civilians walking across the bridge to search for life-saving supplies, killing two and injuring four others.
As reported by NOLA.com/The Times-Picayune, Ronald and Lance Madison were crossing the bridge that day to return to a hotel where they’d sought shelter after their home flooded.
Behind them, Leonard Bartholomew Sr. was venturing to a Winn-Dixie supermarket looking for supplies along with his wife Susan, their children Leonard Jr. and Lesha, their nephew James Brissette, and his friend Jose Holmes.
When the truck of cops began shooting, lining up “like at a firing range,” according to one witness The Guardian quoted, the Bartholomews dove behind a concrete barrier. Ronald and Lance booked it towards their hotel.
During the initial onslaught, Leonard Sr. was shot in the back, head, and foot. Lesha was shot four times. Jose Holmes was shot in the abdomen, hand, and jaw. Susan’s arm was partially shot off — she later had to have it amputated.
James Brissette, only 17 at the time, was killed on the bridge.
The officers then ran down Leonard Jr., who had lagged behind, before speeding off after the Madisons.
As they fired, they hit Ronald Madison in his arm, slowing him down. Lance ran ahead, but he then had to watch as his brother — a 40-year-old mentally disabled man — be shot in the back of the head with a shotgun.
The officers sped away, immediately beginning to plan a cover-up.
The New Orleans Police Department shooters claimed they had been fired on by civilians and were forced to return fire. NOPD detective Arthur Kaufman became the lead investigator on the case, but he conspired with the shooters to cover up the incident.
Brissette Family; Madison FamilyJames Brissette (left) and Ronald Madison (right) were killed during the shooting on Danziger Bridge. Although the official police report stated that Madison had only been shot once, his autopsy showed seven gunshot wounds, including five to his back.
It took six years — until 2011 — for the officers to be convicted, according to Reuters, but due to prosecutorial misconduct, a retrial was ordered.
The cops eventually agreed to a plea deal in 2016, admitting guilt to depriving the victims of their civil rights, obstruction of justice, and conspiracy to obstruct justice. Their prison sentences range from seven to 12 years. If they had been convicted of the original charges, they would have been incarcerated for decades.
Kaufman was only sentenced to three years in prison after pleading guilty to conspiracy to obstruct justice and falsifying evidence.
“I finally got what I wanted: someone to confess, ‘I did it,'” said James Brissette’s mother, Sherrel Johnson. “That did my heart all the good in the world.”
