During the summer I wrote a post in which I highlighted the difference between what children used to be taught about police officers and the new lessons they're learning now. In that post I said that
" it's not a racial divide for the most part, although it can be seen as a color divide. The colors aren't the expected black vs white though, the colors are blue vs all the colors of the rainbow."This story shows that more clearly than just talking about it. (You can read the post here.)
Graphic Body-Cam Footage Shows La. Cops Fatally Shoot 6-Year-Old Autistic Boy
A Louisiana court released footage from November that shows now-former Officers Derrick Stafford, 33, and Norris Greenhouse Jr., 24, open fire on Christopher Few’s SUV, apparently unaware that Few’s 6-year-old son was in the car.
On Wednesday a Louisiana court released body-camera footage of the fatal shooting of a 6-year-old autistic boy.
According to CNN, Jeremy Mardis was riding with his father, Christopher Few, in November 2015 when Marksville, La., police attempted to pull him over. The officers, Derrick Stafford, 33, and Norris Greenhouse Jr., 24, claimed that they were attempting to stop Few to serve a warrant, although no warrants were ever issued for Few.
Few reportedly refused to stop, and the officers gave chase. Officers claimed that the shooting occurred after Few rammed their squad car and was attempting to ram it again. Body-cam footage of the incident appears to show that Few’s car was stopped and his hands were raised when officers began firing on his SUV.
“I dare say it was not even close to being used as a deadly weapon at that time,” U.S. District Court Judge William Bennett said after releasing the video.
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| Norris Greenhouse Jr.; Derrick Stafford ex-Louisiana State Police |
Stafford and Greenhouse were both charged with murder last year.
The video, which is graphic, is about 14 minutes long and includes about a minute of the shooting. The video shows the officers realizing that a kid was in the car. It shows the officers checking the boy’s lifeless body; the video also shows both officers grieving when they learned that a child was in the car. Few was critically wounded.
CNN notes that some 14 shell casings were found on the scene, and the three bullet fragments found in Mardis’ body all came from Stafford’s gun.
Prosecutors claim that the footage supports their point that both officers have a history of excessive violence. They note several times when both officers used a stun gun unnecessarily, and in one case Stafford reportedly broke a 16-year-old girl’s arm while breaking up a schoolyard fight, the New York Daily News reports.
Megan Dixon, Few’s fiancee, told The Advocate last year that Few and Greenhouse had a run-in after the former officer reportedly messaged Dixon on Facebook and visited her home.
Both officers are currently free on bond. Stafford will face trial in November, according to CNN, while Greenhouse will not go to trial until March 2017.
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