N.O. man disputes former NOPD Deputy Supt.’s version of Henry Glover story

1st August 2011   ·   0 Comments

William Tanner, the West Bank resident who gave Henry Glover Jr. a ride to a makeshift New Or­leans police station after Glover was shot by an NOPD officer just days after Hurricane Katrina, said last week that former NOPD Deputy Supt. Marlon Defillo’s description of his interaction with Tanner was not truthful.

Standing in front of the St. Jude Com­munity Center Thursday, Tan­ner says he called for a press conference to set the record straight.

Tanner took offense with statements Defillo reportedly made Sunday night, July 24, to WDSU news anchor Norman Robinson. Defillo, who resigned from the NOPD last month after being accused of failing to call for an investigation of the Henry Glover killing by NOPD officers after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, allegedly told Robinson that he didn’t make the connection several years ago when Tanner called him to talk about Glover’s murder. Defillo reportedly said he didn’t think Tanner’s story was related to the Glover case because Tanner only talked with him about his missing car, which was used to burn the body of NOPD shooting victim Henry Glover.

“Mr. Defillo told WDSU some things that aren’t true,” Tanner told The Louisiana Weekly Thursday. “Let’s be honest: Why would I call a cop to tell him about a burned-up car? He probably seen thousands of them after Hurricane Katrina.

“When I called him, I told him that my car was burned up by police officers with Henry Glover on the back seat. I mentioned that very clearly.

“Mr. Defillo also said he brought me to the internal investigation unit, which was false,” Tanner added. “Me and my girl went there; he just told me where it was.”

Tanner said he spoke with Defillo on three separate occasions: During the 2008 phone call at which time he says he told Defillo about his car being burned with Henry Glover in it; in 2009 when he saw Defillo when the two crossed paths at the Jackson’s Landing apartments, where Tanner lives, during a separate murder investigation involving a stabbing in 2009 and during the 2011 Martin Luther King Jr. celebration at City Hall.

“I talked to Defillo and Mayor Mitch Landrieu during the Martin Luther King march at City Hall,” Tanner said.

Tanner said he picked up Henry Glover in his car on Sept. 2, 2005 after learning that he was shot by a policeman. He gave Glover and several members of his family to Haven Elementary School on the West Bank, where New Orleans cops had created a makeshift police station.

Tanner said he thought it would be safe to bring Glover and several of his relatives to the makeshift police station because days earlier he had visited the station to tell police about individuals in a postal truck who were looting in Tanner’s neighborhood two days after Hurricane Katrina.

“When I came September 2 with Henry Glover, I didn’t get the same greeting I got the first time,” Tanner told The Louisiana Weekly.

Tanner said police knocked out Edward King, Glover’s brother, and put him behind a police car while Glover was bleeding to death on the back seat of Tanner’s car. “They said, ‘Tourists come and get beat up and mugged by niggers,’ so they started beating us up,” Tanner recalled.

“I was kicked twice around my stomach and hit with an M-16 rifle on the side of my face by (Officer) Greg McRae. That’s the one who took off in my car with Henry Glover on the backseat and torched the car the same day.”

This past December, a jury convicted former Officer David Warren of manslaughter in the death of Henry Glover. Officer Greg McRae was convicted on four counts related to his incineration of Glover’s body in the car of William Tanner. Lt. Travis McCabe was convicted of writing a false police report as well as lying to an FBI agent and to the federal grand jury.

Lt. Robert Italiano was cleared both of participating in the writing of a false report about Glover’s death and of lying to federal agents about what he knew. Lt. Dwayne Scheuermann was also acquitted of all charges.

Defillo resigned abruptly last month rather than submit to a disciplinary hearing. He faced possible sanctions for not conducting an immediate investigation into the death of Glover after it was reported to him.

“He used me as a scapegoat,” Tanner said of Defillo at Thursday’s press conference. “Why would I call the (assistant) superintendent of police about a burned-up car?”

“I think Mr. Tanner is confused about the sequence of events,” Defillo told the local daily paper Thursday after learning of Tanner’s remarks. “That (the burned car) was the premise of the conversation with me, and that’s why it was referred to PIB (Public Integrity Bureau).”

Defillo, who at the time oversaw all NOPD investigations, told a federal grand jury that he did not open an inquiry into the incident until early 2009. He said that was during the period when Tanner contacted him to get the NOPD to pay for his destroyed car.

A day after announcing his resignation, Defillo told reporters that Tanner never made any mention of Henry Glover’s death. “He asked me in 2009, ‘Who’s going to buy me a car?’” Defillo said at a July 22 press conference.

Defillo said he only became aware of the possible police homicide after Tanner met with the PIB commander, to whom Defillo sent Tanner after he called the deputy superintendent.

“It’s not about the money; it’s about the justice,” Tanner said Thursday. “It hurts me to see no justice.”

This article was originally published in the August 1, 2011 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper