Polimom doesn’t know how many folks remember hearing about the shooting on Danziger Bridge immediately after Katrina… but I do, and reports then were as garbled and confused as everything else in the city then.
The story that came out at the time was that someone had fired on a group of contractors working on the bridge, the police engaged them in a shoot-out…. and people died.
It was always shrouded in mystery, and a google websearch on “danziger bridge” shooting (as of this post) returns only 362 results. Last night, in fact, was the first time I’ve read anything about it in months (from CNN):
It was a week of dire flooding, rampant looting, death by drowning. Police were strained, beset by suicides and desertion. Four people were killed in confrontations with police that weekend alone.
Madison’s older brother, Lance, said he and Ronald were walking across the Danziger bridge toward another brother’s dental office when teen-agers ran up behind him and opened fire that Sunday morning.
By his account, he and Ronald were running away toward the crest of the bridge when a police team, responding to the report of gunshots, arrived in a rental truck and opened fire on people on the bridge.
This seems to be a complete contradiction of what was initially reported, and Polimom is at a loss. Where, for instance, is any mention of contractors?
Beyond that discrepancy, though, is this disturbing information:
Autopsy results, made available to CNN by a source involved in the investigation, directly contradict that police account.
The findings list five separate gunshot wounds in Ronald Madison’s back. Three went through the body and exited in front. There were two other wounds in his right shoulder. None of the shots entered his body from the front.
Polimom’s going to sound callous, but CNN’s headline emphasizing that Mr. Madison was mentally retarded seems immaterial to me. He could have been a nuclear scientist, for all the bearing that has on the larger question.
Folks, there was unbelievable chaos in New Orleans after the storm. Everyone was afraid – including the NOPD, who were just as in the dark about the situation as the rest of the city. Looting, murder, and mayhem were reported by every news source, and Polimom has no trouble understanding how – and why – the police might have been tense.
But did all training just go out the window?
No, of course it didn’t — at least not for everyone. Many (most) of the New Orleans Police Department served as they always do, and in the face of a complete breakdown in communications and loss of their own homes, they were heroes.
But what really happened on Danziger Bridge?