Two officers have been arrested and face charges of second-degree murder and attempted second-degree murder. According to CNN, a hearing is scheduled for their case on Monday.
The two Louisiana officers are Norris Greenhouse Jr. and Derrick Stafford, who on Tuesday while on duty, killed a 6-year-old boy and critically injured the boys father. Jeremy Mardis, who was just a first grader, had his life taken away, as officers opened fire pursuing his fathers car, while he was strapped in the front passengers seat.
Details of the shooting have yet to be released to the public, but according to local news outlets, the boys father had an outstanding warrant out for his arrest. When cornered at a dead end, the boys father reversed his vehicle and that’s when the officers opened fire.
Even though details haven’t been released to the public, body camera footage helped to charge the two Marshals. State Police Colonel Michael Edmonson told CNN, “I’ve been a police officer for 35 years, but as a father — much less as a state police — it was a disturbing, disturbing video that I watched, and that really helped move us forward.”
There is so much confusion with this case, because even though local reports said the father had an outstanding warrant for his arrest, investigators cleared that up by saying that was not true. Jeremy’s father, Chris Few, also didn’t have any firearms in the car.
This is a perfect example of how body camera’s can keep officers a little more honest. If there was no body camera, these two officers might have just swept this under the rug, matched facts in the police report, and probably wouldn’t have been charged with anything, since the facts are cloudier than swamp water.
Roxanne Couvillion was Jeremy’s teacher. She said that the little boy loved class, playing and doing alphabet puzzles.
“We’re just heartbroken,” she told CNN, standing steps from a small memorial made up of balloons and stuffed animals. “He always was an angel and we know that he’s watching over us.”