More cops charged in post-Katrina bridge shootings

NEW ORLEANS — Four current and two former New Orleans police officers have been charged in connection with the killing of unarmed civilians on the Danziger Bridge in the chaotic days after Hurricane Katrina, federal law-enforcement officials announced here Tuesday.

Four of the men — former Officer Robert Faulcon, Sgt. Kenneth Bowen, Sgt. Robert Gisevius and Officer Anthony Villavaso — were charged with federal civil-rights violations in the killing of 17-year-old James Brissette and the wounding of four members of the same family, when the officers came across a group on the bridge in eastern New Orleans and opened fire.

Faulcon, who was arrested Tuesday morning by FBI agents in Fresno, Texas, also was charged with shooting Ronald Madison, a 40-year-old man with severe mental disabilities, in the back as he tried to flee.

All four of the men could possibly face the death penalty.

The Danziger case became a flash point, in the city and throughout the nation, a symbol of the violence, disorder and official ineptitude in the storm's wake. In particular, it shined a spotlight on New Orleans' long-troubled police department, the target of a major corruption investigation in the 1990s.

Eric Hessler, a lawyer who represents Gisevius, said federal officials should have considered the chaos that the police were operating in during the first few days after Hurricane Katrina.

Starting in February, police officers, often one at a time, began to plead guilty to lesser charges such as conspiring to obstruct justice in the Danziger case; five former officers and a civilian have done so to date. The 27-count indictment handed up by a grand jury Monday paints a harrowing picture of the events on the Danziger Bridge on Sept. 4, 2005, when much of the city was still underwater.

Responding to a call that the police were under fire, officers drove to the bridge over the Industrial Canal in eastern New Orleans.

Brissette and five members of the Bartholomew family were walking across the bridge to get food and other supplies, when the officers opened fire. Four members of the Bartholomew family were shot. Brissette, who was killed, was shot seven times.

Some officers then traveled to the other side of the bridge and found two brothers, Ronald and Lance Madison, who were on their way to check on a dentist's office that belonged to their oldest brother, Dr. Romell Madison. According to the indictment, Faulcon then shot Ronald Madison to death with a shotgun.

The three officers and Faulcon were also charged along with Sgt. Arthur Kaufman and former Sgt. Gerard Dugue, both homicide detectives who were assigned to investigate the shootings, in connection with a cover-up of the shootings.