Cops Charged With Murder, Arrested After Shooting Autistic 6-Year-Old 5 Times

Two police officers in Louisiana have been charged with second-degree murder in a shooting that left a 6-year-old boy dead and his father critically wounded.

Jeremy Mardis was still belted into his seat in his father’s SUV when Marksville deputy marshals opened fire and killed him after the end of a police chase Tuesday night, according to Louisiana State Police Col. Michael D. Edmonson. Reports claim that police officers Norris Greenhouse Jr., 23, and Derrick Stafford, 32, shot the boy to death while pursuing the boy’s father, Christopher Few.

Edmonson said officers Norris Greenhouse Jr. and Derrick Stafford are being booked on charges of second-degree murder and attempted second-degree murder in the shooting.

CNN affiliate WAFB reported that Dr. L.J. Mayeux, coroner of Avoyelles Parish, said the chase ended at a dead end street and that Few backed into the marshal’s vehicle several times and would not get out.

Hanging over all these hypotheticals is a question about what body-camera footage is: Is it a public record created by the government and available to the people, or is it personally identifiable information that’s confidential and off-limits?

Col Edmonson said that over the past 72 hours, investigators had studied footage from body cameras, interviewed witnesses and listened to 911 recordings.

The tragic shooting occurred Tuesday night after a high-speed vehicle chase.

Brouillette was named in a federal civil rights lawsuit in July that was filed by an inmate at the Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola. The state’s police chief called the incident “the most disturbing thing I’ve seen”.

“Jeremy Mardis, 6 years old. What’s important to me is what caused those police officers to pursue”, Edmonson said.

Jeremy was killed after being struck by five bullets, making him the youngest victim of a fatal police shooting this year.

They revealed few details about the shooting: that four Marksville marshals were involved, that no gun was found inside Few’s vehicle and that video exists of the incident.

It was unclear if the arrested officers had obtained attorneys or how they would plead to the charges.

The shooting laid bare tensions between the city of Marksville and a local marshal agency led by a school bus driver who lacks basic law enforcement certification. He said there would be no more press conferences unless there was breaking news to share.