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Jury Convicts 5 Officers In Katrina Shootings

Six years after five New Orleans police officers shot six unarmed people, killing two, on the Danziger Bridge less than a week after the 2005 Katrina hurricane, they were all convicted of  civil rights violations. Officers also were charged with participating in a cover-up to make the shootings appear justified.

Officers claimed they were shot at first and although convicted, the killings were not charged as murders.

Convicted were former officer Robert Faulcon, Sgts. Robert Gisevius and Kenneth Bowen, Officer Anthony Villavaso and retired Sgt. Arthur Kaufman. Faulcon, Gisevius, Bowen and Villavaso were convicted in the shootings and with taking part in the alleged cover-up.

The victims’ families point out the shootings as unreasonable and senseless to shoot dozens of bullets at unarmed people trying to get food.

Faulcon, the only defendant to testify, said he was “paralyzed with fear” when he shot and killed a 40-year-old mentally disabled man, Ronald Madison, as he chased him and his brother, Lance Madison.

But Kaufman, one of the cops investigating the shooting, tried to plant a weapon and made up fake witnesses in the case.