By Allan Lengel
ticklethewire.com
Ex- New Orleans cop David Warren was sentenced Thursday in federal court to 25 years and nine months in prison for the Post-Katrina shooting of civilian Henry Glover on Sept. 2, 2005, the Justice Department said.
A current officer Greg McRae got 17 years and three months for burning of the body and obstruction of justice.
Warren was found guilty by a federal jury of a civil rights violations for shooting Glover. McRae was convicted of two civil rights violations, one count of obstructing justice and one count of using fire during the commission of a felony. McRae was charged with burning the Glover’s body inside a car.
Authorities said evidence at trial showed that Warren shot Glover as he approached the second floor of a strip mall which served as a police substation. The New Orleans Times-Picayune reported that Glover and a friend “had gone to the mall to retrieve some items looted by friends.”
Glover’s brother and a friend flagged down a passing motorist, William Tanner, who put the wounded Glover in his car and tried to seek medical help, the Justice Department said.
But when the men drove up to a makeshift police station seeking help for Glover, police surrounded the men at gunpoint, handcuffed them and let Glover die in the back seat of the car, the Justice Department said.
Authorities said McRae then drove off with Tanner’s car, with Glover’s body inside, and burned both the body and the car with a traffic flare.
The New Orleans Times-Picayune reported that U.S. District Judge Lance Africk told Warren during sentencing that using deadly force was unnecessary: “You killed a man … Henry Glover was gunned down because you believed he was a looter.”
The judge also noted that he had gotten correspondence from some people who said Warren’s conviction would make officers question their right to protect themselves during chaotic incidents, the Picayune reported.
“I reject that argument.” Africk said. “You were not forced to respond to Henry Glover with deadly force.”
“Instead of upholding their oath to protect and serve the people of New Orleans in the days after Hurricane Katrina, these officers abused their power, and violated the law and the public trust,” Thomas E. Perez, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division, said in a statement. “Today’s sentence brings a measure of justice to the Glover family and to the entire city.”
