NOPD clears undercover cop in fatal N.O. East shooting
11th September 2017 · 0 Comments
After an eighth-month investigation of an officer-involved fatal shooting that claimed the life of an eastern New Orleans man in January, the New Orleans Police Department has concluded that the undercover cop who shot Arties Manning III, 26, committed no crime and should be cleared of any wrongdoing.
The investigation’s findings were submitted to the Orleans Parish District Attorney’s Office on August 16, NOPD spokesman Beau Tidwell said.
“Our investigation concluded that the officer committed no violation of criminal law,” Tidwell told Nola.com.
Tidwell said that the undercover officer, Terrance Hilliard. will remain on reassignment until Orleans Parish District Attorney Leon Cannizzaro decides whether to file charges against the officer.
Manning, who was employed as a parking manager at the time of the fatal shooting, was shot in the shoulder, side and back on January 24 by Officer Hilliard in the Carriage House Apartment Complex on Curran Road in eastern New Orleans, where he lived.
While police said that Manning was shot by Officer Hilliard after pointing a gun at the undercover officer, Natasha Manning said her son would never aim a gun at a cop.
“My son would never pull a gun on a cop,” Manning said in a January interview. “I believe my son was scared for having the gun on him. Maybe he was running and it fell? I don’t know, but I want to get to the bottom of this.”
The Manning family believes that Arties was in the wrong place at the wrong time and was on his way to buy a hot plate of food from a fellow resident who lived in the apartment when he was approached by a special NOPD armed robbery squad.
Initially, NOPD officials said that Arties Manning III was a target of the robbery investigation but later admitted that the 26-year-old was not involved in the series of armed robberies that brought the robbery squad to Carriage House.
Another man, Harry Palmore, was arrested on the same night as the fatal shooting and was charged in March with two counts of armed robbery, one count of carjacking and attempted armed robbery and eight counts of illegal possession of stolen property.
Officer Terrance Hilliard was not wearing a body camera because he was undercover at the time of the fatal shooting but another squad member’s body cam captured images of the moments that led up to the shooting although the actual shooting was not captured on video.
Several community events demanding justice for Arties Manning III were held after the fatal shooting, with the family complaining about NOPD officials not sharing information about the fatal shooting incident with them and delaying the return of Manning’s cellphone and other items to his loved ones.
The family is being represented by the Solange MacArthur Justice Center, a nonprofit law firm that represented inmates in a class-action lawsuit that led to a federal consent decree at the Orleans Justice Center and also represents imprisoned inmates at a north Louisiana prison accused of mistreating handicapped inmates and forcing them to bark like dogs for their food.
“Arties’ family has been waiting since January for answers about how and why he was killed,” Katie Schwartzmann, co-director of the Solange MacArthur Justice Center and the family’s attorney, said in a statement released Sept. 4. “The D.A. and the NOPD have a serious responsibility to conduct thorough and impartial investigations into his death. …Seven months have elapsed and the family continues to wait. We hope to learn of their investigation findings soon.”
This article originally published in the September 11, 2017 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
